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Welcome to the powerhouse Revolution Podcast. I’m Lucy Gernon, ex corporate leader turned CEO of my dream business, helping corporate female leaders just like you to create your dream career and life. At 40 I quit the corporate world as I was tired of doing a job that no longer led me up and wanted to live my life my way. I created the power house Revolution podcast to give you simple, actionable tips and strategies to help you create the perfect career and lifestyle that you and your family deserve. So if you’re a corporate female leader or manager who is ready to step into her superpowers and live the life you were born to live, you are definitely in the right place. Because life is way too short to dread Mondays. Okay, let’s jump into today’s episode
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Hello, there gorgeous. Welcome back to another episode of the pirate high simulation podcast. This is the last one in quarter two. Can you believe we are at the end of quarter two? We are right in the middle. Yeah. What like what a first half of the year we have had. And I would love for you now if you’re driving or you’re walking just to take a minute to think about where you were at the start of the year in January, versus where you are now. So what growth Have you seen in yourself? What have you learned from listening to this podcast from investing in yourself from overcoming challenges? Think back to the person you were in January? Have you made changes? Are you proud of yourself? And if you’re saying to yourself, no, I haven’t Yes, you have, okay, because we are growing and learning every day. So I want you to give yourself permission to celebrate yourself. Celebrate the fact that you have worked your ass off for the last six months for your organization. And you deserve to celebrate your achievements. Okay. So today, we are going to be talking all about how to create a buzz around a women’s network of events and five essential steps to increase turnout win engagement. So I hope I have some new listeners today. Because I hope this topic is it’s quite niche. And it’s going to pique the interest of only a few. So if you are on a committee or if you are a lead or a co lead of an employee resource group, you are very welcome to the podcast. If you are new, I see you I appreciate you. And I’m glad you’re here with me today. So quickly introduce myself. I’m Lucy Gernon. And I’m an executive coach. I work with women in leadership roles to help them to be more confident, more successful, more balanced and more happy through my mastermind programs on my executive coaching on my corporate work, too. And I absolutely love what I do. You’re going to hear the passion in my voice today. But before all that just quickly to share for my loyal listeners who know me well. I am actually going to Milan next week for my sister’s 40th birthday. And I am living for it. I have three kids, Sarah, Jaden is 15 ceremi is 11. And Kate is seven. And I spend a lot of time with my two girls by default because they’re girls and they want to be with their mommy on my son is like nah i’m good. I’ll just stay in my room or play play soccer. So I’m actually taking my son with me just the two of us are traveling to Milan for my sister, my whole family or going over just my What do you call a parental family like my actual like original my OG family, my mom, my dad, my two sisters, my nephew. And we’re just going to have a really nice time my sister’s obsessed with pizza and pasta. So we’re going to Milan to celebrate her birthday. And I’m super excited about that. But before I head off to Milan and get myself in the holiday mode for next week, I’m going to be going through with you today about women’s networks. Okay, and women’s erg. So why am I qualified to talk about this? So I have worked with many many companies over the last two or three years in this whole area. And it’s the reason I started my business if I’m honest, like I remember when I worked in the corporate world in the pharmaceutical industry, I remember years ago, and this is something you need to pay attention to for yourself. Actually. I remember this man came in to give a talk and it was like a lunch and learn. And he came in in this gray suit. And everyone was saying, Oh, it was the site leads friends say for example. And they were like, Oh, this is such and such as friend and he’s coming in. And he gave us a talk on confidence. And I just remember sitting there looking at him going, Oh my God, I want to do that. Like why is our man here talking to women about confidence? And like it just it was something inside me. That made me go God I’d love to do that. I’d love to go into companies and do talks. But this is like I’m talking like maybe 10 years ago. So at the time I had no aspiration to start a business. I had no inkling that I’m never going to do this because it’s only in my 30s. But it just goes to show that like there are certain moments in your life that will stand out and will vibrate and glow like nothing else. And you need to pay attention to that because I know now, that was my soul telling me, this is your purpose. This is what you’re here to do. But it’s a journey and a process to get there. So since that time, I have worked with dozens and dozens of different companies. I have done hundreds of hours of coaching 1000s of hours of coaching and talks and trainings and I absolutely love what I do. And actually I wanted to give a shout out to Crystal from thermo fisher. I know Crystal listens to my podcasts and Crystal gave me a gorgeous gorgeous testimonial which I’m going to read out to you after I did a masterclass for their group so she said Lucy light and exciting masterclass for the site, women’s ERG on setting boundaries and shifting mindsets and time management. She was engaging, motivated, knowledgeable and a pleasure to work with to give fantastic recommendations on how to steal my thoughts into an incredible presentation. Professional, bright, modern, interactive and fun. It was refreshingly honest and down to earth. All attendees were very engaged. Her positive, honest and friendly approach is contagious. Oh, that’s okay, thank you. Everyone was buzzing after the event. And all attendees felt the content was very, very valuable to their day to day activities. Some have even set up accountability bodies to continue learning and growing from the event as recommended by Lucy, I can’t recommend this incredible lady highly enough. Thank you so much crystal. And that is honestly gives me so much energy. Because when I go in and I do talks or I do workshops, I don’t just go in like to get paid. I’m going in to make sure your your ladies take action, okay? Because there’s no point in investing in somebody to come in and do a talk. If it’s a nice to have it neat. You need to give them tangibles. And I like to kind of keep it fun and engaging. Because I mean, we need a bit of fun no lives, right? So I suppose variables over that. Yeah, so I just said hi to Crystal and shouting her out.
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So I suppose why am I qualified? First of all, to talk about how to run events? Or how to, I suppose, develop your erg? Well, there’s a few different reasons. Okay. The first reason is, is that I know women deeply for and I know things that nobody will ever know from when I do my one to one work with my clients over the last few years. So I hear the internal secrets from my women, okay, that I work with at all different levels. You probably know I work with women tend to work with women at more senior levels and organizations. But I do go into companies and do talks for male and female leadership teams as well. And I do talks, obviously in masterclasses and workshops for employee resource groups and things as well. So when I go into corporations, it doesn’t matter. But in my one to one practices in my private world, I just work with women. So believe me when I say, I know what they need, I know what they’re thinking. I know their objections. I know their judgments. I know exactly. I just know them all so well and what they need. So that’s the first thing, okay, I mean, inside their minds. The second thing is, is like from a marketing perspective, the world of marketing has changed dramatically. And it’s really important that if you lead or you’re on a committee for your employee resource group that you keep up with current day marketing strategies, because your teams are consuming content on social media, and all of that they’re being bombarded all the time. And your marketing strategy is a central component for that. Now, I have done tons of different courses on marketing, since I started my business I, I designed my own marketing strategies myself for all of my campaigns, which work. And that’s exactly what I’m going to be sharing with you today, why it’s so important that you have that.
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Okay, we’ll get into that in a bit. But first, before we get into that, let’s begin with the very first step in making your ERG the go to resource for women at your site, so that you drive attendance and so that everybody’s engaged. And this is going to help you then to really stand out and make your mark in your company and boost your visibility on your credibility. If you promote yourself on what you’re doing your work. You’re doing enough. Okay. So are you ready? If you’re multitasking, come back to me, I’m about to give you step one.
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So the very first step in this process is you’ve got to get clear on your mission and your vision. This step is crucial because it will help you establish your purpose on your values for your net women’s network. So when you know your mission and your vision, you will actually be able to attract those individuals and create a sense of community because people will not show up to a meeting or a training if they’re not clear on the purpose. I remember years ago in a company, we had a women’s network and I was invited to a networking event with a senior I think she was like a senior vice president or something Now I had no clue what this meant, okay, I didn’t know what was in it for me, I went to the meeting, there was two or three men there, I thought it was a women’s group, it didn’t know what was happening, didn’t feel safe to speak up. And it was a really kind of an awkward discussion, because people didn’t talk because it didn’t know why they were there, there wasn’t a safe kind of space created. Because, you know, companies don’t know how to do this, because you’re not taught, you’re probably doing this on top of your day job. And sometimes some, some companies do fabulously. And sometimes there’s a little bit of work to be done there. And that’s, that’s okay, too, okay. But when you have a clearer understanding of why your Women’s Network exists, what it stands for, you will be able to make decisions that are aligned with the values of your company, and also the values of your actual micro brand within that, okay. And this will help your Women’s Network to stay focused on its goals and objectives, which you need to have, by the way, you need to understand what you’re working towards, and what your objectives are for the year. What tangible KPIs are you linking this to, so that you actually get credit for what you’re doing? You know, so this is something that I would do when I go into companies and we look at, I teach them how to create a really powerful brand for the Women’s Network, and teach them the secret to actually, I suppose linking it to those tangible results, okay.
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The second thing that leads me on nicely is you’ve got to create a powerful brand. Okay, so brands are not just for your company, or for Coca Cola, or for my business powerhouse revolution, or whatever the brand is Gucci, Gucci, and I and your brand is the face of your Women’s Network. And your brand is how you communicate your values your message to the world unto your organization. So if you have a strong brand, where people know what it’s about, it will help your group to stand out and attract members to actually come to your sessions. And to shout about it. And to really make it something to be proud of, it will also create a sense of identity and unity among the women that attend and by having a strong brand, you will be able to convey your message effectively and make a lasting impression. Now, most companies don’t have a brand established for their their employee resource groups. Some of the more obviously, larger companies, the Googles, and all those they have fabulous brandings for their women’s groups, and they know exactly what they’re doing. They have pillars, they know all of this stuff. But again, they’ve invested a lot in this area, okay, they’ve invested a lot in their women’s ERG groups, okay. So this is really, really important, because in today’s world, there are countless organizations on different networks vying for your women’s attention, okay, women right now want to be supported, they want to feel held, they want to feel supported in their roles. And if they’re not getting done in your company, they’re going to leave. So with a really powerful brand for your Women’s Network, you will be able to cut through the noise and capture the attention of your target audience. Okay. So once you’ve created your brand, and again, that’s something I can absolutely help you with, I do an amazing workshop that get great feedback on with your entire committee, where we’ll help you to get clear on your mission, your vision, your values, your messaging, everything your while you’re doing it, your objectives, your calendar, everything. Okay. So if you’re interested in learning about that, absolutely reach out to me go to Lucy garden.com, forward slash contact, and I will link that in the show notes. Or you can just send me a message on LinkedIn or on Instagram. Okay. So after you’ve done the first two steps, you’re going to you’re going to get clear on your mission and vision, you’re going to create your powerful brand, which is super, super critical.
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The next thing you’re going to do is you’re going to survey your audience. So you’re going to survey the women at your site or in your region, and you are going to serve them. So again, rather than just picking random topics that you think that they might want to talk about, or things like that, you go out and you survey them. And again, I give you all the questions that you need to ask they are so so strategically to the ones I use for my own business for market research, and I’ve just tweaked them for women’s networks, okay, so I give you those when I work with you as well. And this really is crucial because you want to understand their needs and their interests, not what you think they need. So I’m going to say that, again, it’s crucial that you understand their needs, their interests, and what they actually need, not what you think they need. Now, I know you might be thinking, no one’s gonna fill out the survey, how do you get them to actually engage? People are busy, they don’t care. Well, this is what I teach you. When I work with you. There are methods and strategies, I promise you that you can get engagement, okay, you will get engagement. I promise you on that on that survey because there’s a way you need to do it. And that’s exactly what I can teach you. Okay. So when you survey them, and you actually deliver content, that is what they’re looking for, you’re going to create a more engaged and committed membership, okay, on as well, you will, you will ensure that you’re actually providing real value to the women who are in it. And it is really important that you need to know that people’s needs interests can change over time. So it is a really good idea to regularly survey your members to ensure that your your ERG is staying relevant and meeting the evolving needs. So I would recommend at a minimum, you would survey like every 12 months, but like, if you’re in a massive period of change in your organization, where maybe you’re going through a merger, or you’re going through an acquisition, or you’re cold through COVID, you might want to do a survey every quarter just to check in and make sure that the content that you’re delivering for your your women at your site or in your in your organization is timely, and it’s actually going to support them in that moment in time. Okay. So actually, what do I mean by that, like, there’s no point if you’re in the middle of a merger, right. And there’s redundancies having a speaker to come in to talk about promotions, okay, that’s just not aligned. So you need to be thinking about what’s going on in your organization that specific time. And then trying to select in house and external speakers to I suppose, like, fit the needs of the organization in that time. So I can’t stress that enough, being timely is important.
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Step four, then is to create a calendar of events on your marketing strategy for the year. So again, this is something that I teach, I teach you how to do this. So when you plan a variety of events throughout the year, you will keep your women’s ERG engaged, and you will help to build a sense of community. So when you have a calendar of events, you’ll be able to communicate activities, and you can create that bulls and that excitement amongst your members. So you want to learn you need to learn to market. And that’s what I can teach you, okay, you need to learn to market and to be able to bring your your women along so that they’re excited to come to your events, okay, and they’re going to be excited, because you’re going to be given them what you’ve told them that they need. And it’s really important to that, you know, you might be thinking, well, he can’t please everybody. And you know, different people want different things. And you’re correct, which is why it’s important to plan a variety of different events that appeal to different interests, different learning styles. So you might put in like workshops, you might have networking events, you might have external speakers, you might have, you know, fireside chats, or you might do like speed dating sessions, guest speakers, you know, you plan a variety of different events. And this will actually help you then to attract a diverse range of members and just keep everybody engaged on buzzing about your ERG for the year. And then finally, step five, I alluded to it earlier is you need to book your internal and external speakers. So I’ve already got tons of bookings in for 2024 Already, believe it or not for women’s groups who are like totally organized on the ball, and they are trying to get ahead. Okay, so, you know, speakers like me, we broke up fast. And we don’t always have availability, like I have women, people, companies reach out to me, I’m not talking here, like the week of International Women’s Day asked me on my free on the Eighth of March. So I can tell you, if you reach out to me on the fifth of March, I’m not going to be free to do an event for you on the eighth. Okay. So what you need to do now is is let’s just go International Women’s Day is a big example. Like that’s a massive I suppose event in your international in your ERGs calendar. So there’s no reason right now that you can start planning ahead now, like I’m all about getting ahead. And you know, looking at the team for next year on trying to book a speaker, if you say for example, if you know you want me on the eighth, let me know now so that you can secure your place. Okay. So yeah, so when you have I suppose like a variety, you are going to keep them engaged, you’re going to keep them the knowledge and I always say like, it’s really important that you have internal and external is because externals are great because you know, we can bring fresh perspectives, we can bring new ideas, fresh tools as fresh energy, it’s a bit of excitement, it’s somebody new, but then you’re entitled speakers are really, really valuable as well, because these are the people that are role modeling day in day out. Okay. So again, I would even encourage
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a kind of a reverse, even like a reverse whatsoever. I’m thinking of reverse mentoring, but it’s not, but it’s not all just senior leaders. Maybe at your women’s group, you’d have some of the younger folk in your organization come in and maybe present on how to use social media, for example, or there’s a lot of women I work with specially and women of my age and older, they are terrified to get visible. They want to they want to post on LinkedIn. They don’t know what to say they’re afraid to show their faces they don’t know what to do. And then you have this new generation who are dancing in their bedrooms on Tik Tok and do All these things. So wouldn’t it be so cool to like, actually get somebody who’s really passionate about that, because they’re on your site right now in your organization, get them to teach the older ones like how to do it. I just think that’d be a really cool topic. But anyway, so you can probably hear, like, I get so excited when I talk about speaking at these events, because I genuinely love it. And I always get great, great feedback. So like Mary, she was a VP of inclusion, organizational effectiveness at iKON. And she said, I did an event for them for International Women’s Day. She said, this is a passionate, knowledgeable, relatable and professional presenter, who can read an audience well, yes, that’s one of my superpowers, I know what you’re thinking, and provide the right amount of advice that is practical, easy to remember and informative, informative. She is one of the best I’ve seen in five years, she brings energy to the room and relates to people’s emotions by thought, and thoughts by sharing her vulnerabilities. And how she overcame these using stories and anecdotes that draw the audience in. So thank you so much for that, Mary. Because that literally summarizes me in a nutshell, I’m really authentic and not stiff, I do come in and I like to create a really safe space, I share my journey, I share that a overcame massive self doubt, massive anxiety, massive depression, and people pleasing, not being authentic, all the things that you want your women to overcome, I have done it, and including getting visible and all you know, I’ve started a business, I’ve done it all. So I love coming in. I just love keeping it real with your teams. So if you implement the five steps, I’m going to recap on them, you’re going to create a massive buzz around your ERG events, and you are going to increase your turnout. So step one, just to summarize is Get clear on your mission and your vision. What are you trying to achieve? What is the goal? What are the KPIs your link in your work to what is the actual objective. Step two, create a powerful brand, a brand that cannot be ignored, that gets attendees engaged, that they want to come to your sessions and gets you noticed. Step three, survey your audience. So super important surveyed the women at your site to find out exactly what they want. Do it regularly to make sure that you what you’re delivering is actually meeting their needs, or what’s the point. And step four is to create a calendar of events and get your marketing strategy in place for the year. Step five, then is to book your internal and external speakers well in advance so that you actually have stuff in your calendar, okay. Now, just to say actually, on the speaker topics, like more speakers like me, for example, I deliver like diverse topics, like I have a list of kind of things I specialize in talking. So say for example, if you booked me like what most companies do is they’ll book me say for a set a series of four, or something like that. And, you know, they’ll know they have an idea what topics they want, but I’ll always check in the month before to say like, is this still relevant? Is this what we’re still doing. So don’t worry too much more scorches, will operate the same way our speakers were fairly flexible. Once we have noticed on his balls, what’s kind of needed more. So at that time, that’s obviously within the boundaries of what we’re qualified and specialized to actually teach and talk about. So if you implement these five steps, you will increase your engagement, okay. And this will be your legacy. So I know you might be feeling overwhelmed. And if you don’t know where to start, I wanted to invite you to reach out to me because like I said, I offer a package for women’s employee resource groups for leads and committees. And the package will help you I literally take you through step by step by step by step I hold you through the whole process to create your powerful brand. Included in the package to is virtual and in person master classes, or you can just do one or the other. I really want to take all the pain out of you doing this because I know you have your day job to do as well. And it’s not easy when you don’t have a background in Event Management, Marketing and personal development and branding. But you’re in luck, because I do and it’s what I do with my superpower. So you know, we need to look at your committee, we need to look at assigning roles or responsibilities, getting clear on your vision and your mission, your brand for your unique site. So even if your corporation has all of this, which most multinationals will have, you know their company strategy or your company brand, your site or your particular department or whatever function you’re in, it’s still very unique. Your people are unique, so you want to personalize it for your people and make it work for you, which is totally allowable. And I would love to help you with that. And if you’re like Lacey, this is the answer to my prayers. We need this I want to hear from you. So go to Lucy garden.com forward slash contact right now and just fill out the very, very short form and we can have discussion about what you need. I have extensive experience in this field and I can definitely provide you with all the guidance or support that you need to make your ERG a success. Okay, and if you’re listening to this podcast right now, and you are not a lead of an erg or your Women’s Network your women ask, but you know who is where you know somebody on the committee, please forward this episode right now, literally copy and paste the link and send it via slack email teams, whatever pigeon letter in a bottle, whatever you want to do, just get this episode to the right person or people in your organization. And you never know we might get to meet at your site. So again, just go to Lucy garland.com forward slash contact, or click the link in the show notes wherever you’re listening right now. Or as always, you can just reach out to me on social media. I’m just at Lucy garden. Okay, I’m getting excited. So I better go on out and use this energy. I’m going to go and do a workout before I start the rest of my day. Have the best rest of your week and I will be back again same time, same place next Wednesday. Bye for now.
