Why We Need More Women to Speak Up!

the main reason why we need more women to speak up is fairly simple…because our voices matter. so why aren’t women being equally represented as fortune 500 CEO’s, motivational speakers, coaches and world champions?

i have no quick answer for that but what i do know is that it’s up to us women to stand out and speak up!

quick catch-up: in 2012, my husband (ryan avery) set an incredibly insane lofty goal of becoming the ‘youngest world champion of public speaking in history!’ yes, that really does exist, see proof!

he asked me to coach him so we set off to dedicating 8 months of intense learning around communication and public speaking.

after competing against more than 30,000 people from 116 countries through six competitions, he was crowned the youngest winner of world championship of public speaking. sadly…there is not an actual crown but i move to change that.

this has given us opportunities to travel, speak and create new dreams both together and independently.

while i was in malaysia for the toastmasters international conference this past august, i ran into olivia schofield, the sole female finalist from 2011. rumor has it she would have won if the timing qualification wouldn’t have run out! we exclaimed how disappointed and frankly pissed we were that more women weren’t in the semi-finals or world finals of the public speaking contest.

we finally started smiling when we realized we could do something about (and also realizing we were both a little spunky in nature).

you can read an article i wrote about why more women aren’t competing and be sure to look at the comments because many people have ideas around why this is the case. instead of just complaining about it (which i’m very good at it), we decided to take action.

we’ve created Vocal Women!

“We are a global gathering of women speakers, using our voices to make a difference. We believe in supporting and facilitating growth in each other. We are strong, vulnerable, honest, bold, thinkers, doers, and teamsters. Our mission? To deliver our personal best.”

if you can’t tell from this blog, i’m extremely passionate about helping women feel empowered not only in our relationships but also our lives. i also know men read this and i’m so thankful to them for being enlightened readers!

i’d love to invite you to our first (and free) webinar, which is starting this saturday, january 3, 2015! it’s FREE for those that sign up so visit HERE to register and kick off your 2015 with a productive bang!

most people and especially women often struggle with wanting to share a message with the world but then the overwhelm and nerves kick in and it gets tough. we are here to help, share our experience and create a network of other strong women!

i’d love for you to join us! we need more women not only competing in the world championship but also utilizing our voices to speak up and make a difference. hopefully this fits in with your “word of the year” because i’d love to know some familiar and awesome women are joining olivia and me on saturday!

please pass this on to other women you know who are interested in finding the message that matters to them, competing for the world championship of public speaking and/or looking to connect with powerful women who are making a difference in the world! www.vocalwomen.com

i appreciate your support in my first big venture of being fully capable in 2015! looking forward to kicking things off on 1/3/2015 with you (i won’t even tell if you put a little bailey’s in your coffee while you tune in)!