Interview with Bobbie Carlton, Founder, Innovation Women, United States

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CONVERSATION HIGHLIGHTS:

Equal Visibility for Women: A Conversation with Bobbie Carlton

In this enlightening episode of YouMeWe Amplified Podcast, I sit down with Bobbie Carlton, the inspiring founder of Innovation Women, a platform that provides equal visibility opportunities for women speakers. We dive deep into the systemic challenges women face in securing speaking engagements and emphasize the importance of public speaking for career advancement.

Bobbie, also the founder of Carleton PR and Marketing and Lioness Magazine, shares her insights on building a supportive community for women speakers and the necessity of sustainable business models to promote gender equity on stage. This episode is a powerful call to action for women entrepreneurs and leaders to assert their presence and expertise across all industries. Enjoy the conversation and get ready to be inspired!

00:00 Introduction to YouMeWe Amplified Podcast

02:33 Meet Bobbie Carlton: Founder of Innovation Women

03:41 The Catalyst Behind Innovation Women

05:34 Systemic Challenges for Women Speakers

07:55 Types of Speakers and Their Roles

14:27 Building a Supportive Community for Women Speakers

25:43 The Disconnect in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

29:50 The Power of Visibility in Public Speaking

31:24 Breaking Stereotypes in Speaking Engagements

34:52 Categories of Speakers and Compensation Models

38:36 Measuring the Impact of Innovation Women

40:54 The Structure and Benefits of Carleton PR Marketing

46:11 Sustainability and Future Vision for Innovation Women

50:43 Rapid Fire Questions and Final Thoughts

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Interview with Bobbie Carlton, Founder, Innovation Women; United States

Bobbie Carlton is the founder of Carlton PR & Marketing, Innovation Nights and Innovation Women, or, as she calls them, the day job, the night job and the dream job. Carlton is an entertaining, tell-it-like-it-is speaker who speaks extensively (and passionately) about public speaking and how it can be the driving force behind career growth and business success. Bonnie is a TEDx speaker and an entertaining startup event host; she's spoken at the United Nations, she's shared the stage with storytelling legend (and NPR's Snap Judgment host) Glynn Washington, and she's been on the main stage for some of the world's best-known conferences for technical and professional women. Carlton has been featured on CBS News, in the Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, USA Today, and other major media. She was previously the head of global PR at two different enterprise software companies and the head of marketing for a brand devoted to providing positive role models for preteen girls. She's inspired thousands of technical, entrepreneurial, and executive women to take control of their speaking careers. She has worked with event managers worldwide to deliver diverse and inclusive events.

United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal(s) addressed:
#5. Gender Equality, #8. Decent Work and Economic Growth, #9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, #16. Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

Social impact:
Bobbie (as Innovation Nights) helped to launch more than 1500 new products that got more than $4B in funding. Innovation Women provides equal visibility opportunities for women and support career development, business success, thought leadership, and diversity. We’re also here to help event managers avoid the all-male, all-pale, and all-stale panels we see so often at industry conferences and events. We need more diversity onstage. Since 2015, we have consistently grown and placed hundreds of women on stages worldwide. We have also helped hundreds of event managers successfully build diverse panels and events. We connect women with visibility opportunities and help them advance in their businesses or careers. We also want to ensure that our platform reflects the breadth and depth of our world so events can showcase that diversity and inspire future generations.

Website: https://www.innovationwomen.com

Bobbie Carlton, Founder, Innovation Women Speaker Bureau, United States

Note: This conversation is transcribed using AI software, which means the transcription is not perfect. Watch the video or listen to the podcast to hear our guest’s wisdom in her own words. If you want to see more interviews like this, please comment below!

To read about Changemakers International, check out Suzanne’s book Make Your Contribution Count for You, me, and we. 

Visit bio for resources. 

Introduction to YouMeWe Amplified Podcast

[00:00:00] Suzanne F Stevens: Welcome to You Me We.

We Amplified Podcast. And this enlightening episode, I have the pleasure of having a conversation with Bobbie Carlton, the founder of Innovation Women, an initiative that provides equal visibility opportunities for women on stage internationally. Although I’d been up passive member of Innovation Women, Bobbie and I engaged in a lively conversation.

Shall I say, on LinkedIn about women professional speakers, receiving numeration for speaking specifically on International Women’s Day. We discussed this issue and so much more. Bobbie is also the founder of Carlton PR and marketing and Lioness Magazine, and has made significant strides in advocating for diverse voices in public speaking, emphasizing the systemic barriers that women face. The conversation covers the importance of public speaking for career advancement, the challenges women encounter and securing speaking engagements. And the need for women to be seen as leaders and experts beyond the traditional DEI topics. Bobbie shares insights into creating a supportive community for women speakers. Highlighting the success of Innovation Women and the necessity of sustainability.

Self-supporting business models to promote gender equity on stage. The episode is a call to action for women entrepreneurs and leaders to assert their presence and expertise in all industries. Aiming to level the playing field and dismantle long standing biases. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.

………………………………….​

 Welcome to YouMeWe Amplified Podcast, where we have conversations with IMPACT leaders addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. These leaders are transforming where we live and work with sustainable social solutions.

[00:02:20] Suzanne F Stevens: Hello, I’m Suzanne F. Stevens, an international speaker, author, community builder, and a multi-award-winning impactpreneur. And of course, your host for YouMeWe Amplified Podcast.

Meet Bobbie Carlton: Founder of Innovation Women

[00:02:33] Suzanne F Stevens: Today we’re having a conversation with Bobbie Carlton, founder of Innovation Women Innovation Women provides equal visibility opportunities for women on stage.

Bobbie advocates for diverse voices on panels and at events worldwide. These visibility opportunities are designed to help women move forward in their businesses and careers. With over 21, 000 posts on the Innovation Women’s site for calls for speakers and numerous awards, including being named one of 10 Bostonians who have done the most for the startup community in 2010.

And Boston’s 50 on fire. She’s hot. So wait till you hear this. We’re in for a robust conversation. Bobbie is also the founder of Carleton PR and Marketing and Innovation Nights from Massachusetts, United States. as a professional speaker yourself and as I am, it’s great to speak with a professional speaker about the speaking business.

 I am a member of Innovation Woman.

The Catalyst Behind Innovation Women

[00:03:41] Suzanne F Stevens: But what was the catalyst for you to start Innovation Woman?

[00:03:45] Bobbie Carlton: In 2014, I had been running two companies. Carleton PR Marketing was the day job, and Innovation Nights was the night job. And as the founder of Innovation Nights, which is a social media powered event,I was being invited to all of these events where I would sit in the audience with my friends and we would watch what I call the male-pale and stale-panels.

The same four old white guys over and over again. And I usually tell people I don’t have anything against old white guys. I happen to be married to one. But, I do object to only hearing some very specific voices from the stage, and as a long time PR person, I recognize the power of public speaking to support women’s growth and career potential.

So that’s where the kind of undercurrents, came from for Innovation Women.

[00:04:44] Suzanne F Stevens: It’s interesting. A couple years ago during COVID, I had the honor with my speaking association to interview all these bureaus and meeting planners about what they were looking for in a speaker and that sort of conversation. And one of the bureaus said, “Well, as you know, Suzanne, there’s not that many women speakers.”

I was like, I don’t know that matter of fact. I know lots of them and a lot of very capable people with profound messages and diverse experiences. I heard that you have a voice and should be heard. So I hear you because I was wondering why so many women aren’t on panels, why is there maybe a token woman that’s getting on a stage.

So creating this platform is a fantastic opportunity for that.

Systemic Challenges for Women Speakers

[00:05:34] Bobbie Carlton: Yeah, and I will tell you, I actually have some reasons, systemic reasons why there aren’t as many women on stage. There are a couple of things. I mean, number one, speaking begets speaking. The more speaking you do, the more speaking you will do. And event managers often see a speaker at another event and invite them to speak at their event.

Because, you see a great speaker, you want to  perpetuate that. You want to bring that along. But what it also perpetuates is the same people over and over again. And an event manager is often looking for the person who is the C suite executive. You start looking at defining panels or defining speaker groups. For example, if you said, okay, I want to do a panel on all Fortune 500 CEOs. Only a very small percentage of that group are women. So you’re starting off in these executive positions with a smaller number of women going in, and also a smaller number of people of color, people with disabilities, other underrepresented groups. But there’s even more to it. Number one, women are more likely to work part time. This is Bureau of Labor Statistics here in the U. S., gives you that data. Women are also more likely to work for smaller companies. Often these smaller companies give them more flexibility. Also, they’re still more likely to be responsible for kids at home.

And as I usually say, you can’t put little Johnny on the bus and be giving the morning keynote at the same time. So there are some reasons actually that women turn down opportunities. There’s no one to backfill them. There is nobody that is supporting them when they are looking to go to an event. It’s harder for a smaller company to have somebody out of the office for a whole week or two or three days to go to a conference. So there are some real systemic reasons why there are fewer women on stage.

Now, for the sake

[00:07:46] Suzanne F Stevens: of our audience, I just want to clarify a couple things here so that we don’t muddy the waters.

Types of Speakers and Their Roles

[00:07:55] Suzanne F Stevens: There are different types of speakers. And we don’t need to get into all the different types of speakers, but there are those speakers that may work for an organization. They may be an entrepreneur and a leader in their organization because a lot of women that I’ve interviewed start speaking after I’ve interviewed them because they’re getting more profile or they were before.

Or in large organizations, as part of your duty to amplify your brand, you may be speaking. You’re getting paid a salary and then you’re speaking to, and those, a lot of those people end up on panels. Wouldn’t you agree?

[00:08:30] Bobbie Carlton: There are what we call visibility speakers.

There are corporate evangelists. Like it’s part of my job to be on stage speaking on behalf of my company. Like there are also professional speakers and there are. Wannabe speakers, I have a story that I want to share with the world.

[00:08:51] Suzanne F Stevens: Yeah. and to just to differentiate a professional speaker, just for our audience sake is somebody who gets paid to speak. Most professional speakers do it full time. And I just want to clarify that. There’s all. Yeah. Cool. different types of speakers. and I will try to be as specific as I can to you, Bobbie, when I’m referring to one or the other.

[00:09:14] Bobbie Carlton: Yeah. And there’s also one of the things that we do a lot of times is we say, Innovation Women supports speakers and subject matter experts. And sometimes that’s a good differentiator as well.

[00:09:29] Suzanne F Stevens: So what would you think would be some of the most common challenges? I mean, you just gave us A challenge why there’s not more women speakers, but how about challenges of women face when trying to secure a speaking engagement, regardless of, if they’re paid or unpaid.

[00:09:45] Bobbie Carlton: Yeah. And I think perception. Okay, when you are on stage as a speaker or a subject matter expert, there is a perception that you know more then the people in the audience. That’s why you were selected to be that person on stage. You’re an expert. You’re a thought leader and perceptions are incredibly hard to get around.

I usually tell people that I consider us as a society almost brainwashed into expecting that people who are leaders, people who are experts, look a certain way. And so if you see somebody who doesn’t look that same way that you expect them to be, and as I said earlier, male and pale, you have, a different perspective on them and you might not see them as the leader that they are.

So you might not expect them to be invited. You might not invite them because they don’t fit your mind’s eye and the perception that you have of who is an expert on any given topic.

[00:11:03] Suzanne F Stevens: So a bias, it’s a bias. It’s a bias. It’s conditioning that this is what expertise looks like.

Do you think all sexes have that bias??

[00:11:17] Bobbie Carlton:  I do.

I do. I think all of us do. Anytime you start to talk in a conversation with people and you don’t mention pronouns. There are certain things that we have been conditioned to see. I talk about my doctor, my dentist, my lawyer, by the way, all of whom for me are women, but there is often a perception that people have, ah, that doctor must be male, that lawyer must be male.

Like any position of authority and expertise, there’s a certain percentage of the population that unbidden. the perception,the picture pops into their head, whether they like it or not.

[00:12:06] Suzanne F Stevens: I talk a lot about unconscious bias and I agree with you but what is so interesting about the speaking business is event planners are looking for something different. So it’s almost ironic that,you want something different, and yet we go to the same to get this something different.

[00:12:30] Bobbie Carlton: Yes. Yeah. And there’s fear involved with that. As an event manager, your job is to sell tickets. Put butts in seats. Give those people who are buying tickets an amazing experience. And yet you are relying upon perhaps someone you’ve never met in person and you’re relying on them to come out and be fabulous. Even the most incredible actors and actresses are people that might have an off night. If you think about what they are relying upon the speakers for, like this is their whole program that they are basically placing in trust to someone they may have never met. So a tried and true speaker that they may have seen or heard of, like that’s where they go.

 I know you deal with event planners, but what role do you play in putting diversity, equity and inclusion on stage?

Some of that is what we’re doing here today. It’s educating people about the issues in the industry. and sharing the knowledge that we have, helping to educate people about that.

[00:13:48] Suzanne F Stevens: Now, what other challenges do you think women have besides the conditioning and the biases that exist to getting speaking engagements?

[00:13:57] Bobbie Carlton: I think as speakers, we do have to a little bit, battle the self bias, the conditioning we had all as kids. I’m old enough where my parents talked to me about not speaking out so much, not drawing attention to myself. There are all kinds of things that “good girls don’t do” and good girls don’t draw attention to themselves.

[00:14:21] Suzanne F Stevens: The self sabotage.

[00:14:24] Bobbie Carlton: Absolutely.

[00:14:25] Suzanne F Stevens: Yeah. Well said.

Building a Supportive Community for Women Speakers

[00:14:27] Suzanne F Stevens: Now, how do you create a supportive environment for women to grow and succeed within Innovation Woman?

[00:14:36] Bobbie Carlton: A lot of the work that we do is around building the community, and I will say that speaking has been almost traditionally a very secretive world. I think almost anybody who has ever stepped foot on stage somehow gets, I don’t even know how this happens, but a lot of them go, “Oh, I’m a great public speaker.

I could teach people how to do that.” And maybe I won’t share my knowledge and the things that I’ve learned and someday I’ll become a speaking coach or I’ll help other people and I’ll make a living helping other people get on stage because I’ve done it myself. I don’t know how this happened, but there is definitely a culture in the speaking world of secrecy. And, some of it is people go into the world with an abundance mindset, and some people go, I got myself on stage, you can do the work to get yourself there too. We blow that right out of the water at Innovation Women. We talk about Innovation Women as a supportive community. We have a whole concept we call Speaker Friends. And Speaker Friends don’t gatekeep. Speaker Friends share their knowledge. Speaker Friends help each other out. I have a Friday morning call that I do. Speaker Friend Friday, every single week. And we have anywhere between 50 and 100 people that hop on Zoom, ask questions, and answer questions every single week.

We’ve been doing this for years. And I think that abundance mindset, that ability to share knowledge and help each other out is gratifying for women, but it also shows them that they don’t have to be secretive about their speaking knowledge and what they’ve learned.

[00:16:29] Suzanne F Stevens: Your platform, lists speaking opportunities for people as well. What percentage would you say of those speaking opportunities are actually paid opportunities?

[00:16:40] Bobbie Carlton: I think we’re pretty akin to what’s available out in the marketplace. And when I started Innovation Women in 2014 and 2015, I did a survey of 360 event managers. And I attempted to get a kind of a broad swath, a broad cut of the industry. I had some people that were running local meetups. I had people that were running giant conferences. And I asked a lot of questions. And this is before Innovation Women actually went live, so I had all kinds of time on my hands to spend asking questions. So out of these 360 event managers, half of them had zero budget for speakers. Like, nothing. Absolutely. No, we never pay a speaker. 42 percent paid some speakers.

They had some money for keynotes. They had some money for the people that were running workshops. They had discretionary funds. But often these were conferences and events that had many speakers. One of the largest groups that we did work with had something like 700 speaking slots for their five day, six track conference.

And that was a combination of people who were on panels, people who were doing features or breakouts, and the keynotes. So 42%, I mean, already we’re up to like 92% of the event managers that I surveyed back in 2014 and 2015 are not paying everyone. So that leaves 8% of the event managers that I interviewed at the time who were paying all or most of their speakers. Like if I’ve got a speaker, I am compensating them. I’m, and I’m not just talking about I’ve got travel money and maybe a hotel room. I am paying them an honorarium. That number I think is shocking to a lot of speakers. Now we attempted to do an update on that survey in 2019 and 2020. Obviously everything changed in March 2020. But the preliminary numbers that came in December 2019 and January and February 2020. Everything was pointing pretty much in the same direction. Like, nothing had changed. So we still saw a huge percentage of conferences and events that don’t pay anyone. So what that means is you have a lot of conferences and a lot of speakers with no expectation of pay. This gets back to the conversation we had earlier about subject matter experts and speakers who are getting paid by their employer or they’re using these speaking engagements as a way to advance their career or their business. The interesting group in both of my studies, to me, was what I call the cagey event manager. That’s somebody in that 42 percent group because they know that some speakers need to get compensated and paid and yet they’re very quiet about whether they’re paying anybody at all because they are often running a conference that has dozens if not hundreds of speakers that are not getting paid. So, they don’t want to sit down and explain to people this is why I pay my keynote and this is why you are not getting paid. And there’s a very, open and very logical answer to that, which is somebody is a celebrity, somebody is a professional speaker, and somebody is a subject matter expert. Two different areas, two different kind of speaker. And I also, frankly, sometimes feel like the use of the word speaker is just a bad idea. Because I think it sets up an expectation because we have all seen, the information about Celebrities who show up and get appearance fees, or professional speakers who get paid quote, unquote, tens of thousands of dollars to show up and do a presentation for 10 minutes or 20 minutes. And I think all of that really points to the fact that a lot of people do not understand the speaking game.

[00:21:29] Suzanne F Stevens: And there’s a little bar to entry. The reality that you can just say you’re a speaker and the amount of people that I’ve even interviewed or have conversations with where I’m a certified speaker and, as a certified speaker, I had to get lots of my clients to give me testimonials and prove how much income I made through speaking.

There is something that does exist, but anybody can be a speaker. That’s the challenge, right? Like there, there’s your, you can, say anything and don’t have credentials to be a speaker. Or I have a story like you alluded to earlier that I want to share and that’s great.

Butif people aren’t learning anything from that story, it’s just a story. One of those challenges. is when speakers are not paid and a lot of professional speakers are not paid. So people that have earned their accreditation, have been suggested that they’re not keynoting, but they’re going in a session.

And for that reason, you’re not getting paid because only our keynote speakers will get paid. There’s a challenge with that though, that everybody else is getting paid. And it’s like. And I’m not sure if it’s the small business getting taken advantage of, if it’s women getting taken advantage of, because I know often men in those sessions will not get paid either,

but there seems like the system.

Is a bit broken, for people in that are sharing their expertise and they’re asked to do it for free, for exposure, for all of these, reasons that are self serving, but you don’t sell. Can’t collect emails. You can’t do any of that stuff, but your 10, 000 fee, sorry, can’t afford it. What are your thoughts on all of that?

[00:23:29] Bobbie Carlton: Oh my God, I mean, I literally, I think I told you when we started this conversation, I could talk about this for days. And I agree that sometimes it is the speakers being taken advantage of, and sometimes it’s speakers who have figured out how to work within the system. And I think there are many options for speakers to create business models that work for them. And it doesn’t require selling from the stage. It doesn’t require, collecting email addresses and leads and things like that. Savvy speakers with a great business model, and by the way, we talk about this in Speaker Friends all the time, like, crazy amount of time has been invested in these conversations. I think number one, you can make a living and a good living as a unpaid by the organizers speaker. Somebody who has figured out a different business model. There are definitely people who get taken advantage of. And there are also people, quite frankly, who claim to be speakers, as you said. You just say, I’m a speaker and show up and they do frankly a really poor job of being a speaker and subject matter expert and the events kind of look at that and say, oh, thank God we weren’t paying them because that was awful.

That was terrible. Why would we pay that? So the more that people are not compensated, The more people who are speaking uncompensated, and the more the people suck at speaking, like, it just blows up so many of these different models, and it doesn’t allow us to move forward with something that is fair and equitable for everybody.

[00:25:36] Suzanne F Stevens: We won’t stay too long on this because I know we could talk a lot about this, and you and I connected actually on LinkedIn.

The Disconnect in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

[00:25:43] Suzanne F Stevens: With this conversation, it was International Women’s Day, where I was bringing up, that I was boycotting International Women’s Day because you’d get all these speaking requests and no one was paying women to speak to empower other women, but they wouldn’t empower the speaker by paying them. And, I see International Women’s Day as the day to equal the playing field where often men are still getting hired more often than women in the speaking sphere, that this is an opportunity to elevate us to actually level that playing field.

And yet, when asked to do that, we’re also asked to speak for free. Since that time, I have spoken to some of my black colleagues and they said, Oh, Suzanne, this happens in February too, for Black History Month. And then I hear LGBT. So we’re talking diversity, equity, inclusion, and we’re not doing it.

And that’s the disconnect that I have, that when it comes to speaking, All of a sudden, it’s like, well, we can’t afford speakers, but we still can get you good food.

[00:27:01] Bobbie Carlton: And by the way, my husband’s a musician, and he and I say, we are You know, running at the same problem, the amount of time that he has been, requested to put in and not get compensated for that, your band should show up and play at our event on Saturday night for the visibility because you might potentially get a paying gig out of it. There are so many industries that it’s the same type of thing, but I think anything that is performance oriented. where there is a certain level of judgment call around payment levels. it’s not like I can say I’m a pound of hamburger and that cost me 3. 99. we have speakers that show up who do their 10 minutes and are paid 60, 000 and we have speakers that run half day workshops and get paid nothing.There is no pricing that is, shared with a lot of these. There’s a deep level of individual negotiation that happens. Like, there’s so much that just kind of works against us.

Plus, when you’re talking about these special days, often special days are come with special organizations that are doing special things. They may not regularly do events, so they’re not set up as an event business. They’re set up as some other kind of business. And I’m gonna do a special event for International Women’s Day. Have you ever run an event before? Heck no, but we’re gonna do it! you can pay speakers. Really? Okay, I mean, so many things!

This is so complex.

[00:28:54] Suzanne F Stevens: Well, you bring up some really great points there, and a lot of it is performance. And I wouldn’t even go near the musicians because they don’t get paid a lot less than us as it is. I have a lot of musician friends, so I hear you on that one, but there’s also writers that were saying it. And I often think too, that we take advantage of not only the speaker, but also the small businesses.

And that’s a whole other rabbit hole, but that was something that was coming out.​

Innovation Woman wants to advance women through speaking.

And as a result of doing that, tell me why you want to do that besides the fact that you want to see different people on stages.

What’s the benefit to women getting their voice heard, based on your perspective?

[00:29:49] Bobbie Carlton: Yeah, absolutely.

The Power of Visibility in Public Speaking

[00:29:50] Bobbie Carlton: Visibility, the kind that we get from the stage, brings tremendous business and career opportunities. So every time we’re on stage, we tell our story. We’re able to advance our careers. We’re able to advance our businesses. Being on stage gets you invitations to be a member of a board. It might get you an opportunity for a new job or a promotion. It might get you the opportunity to connect with investors or the media. Like there’s all these amazing business and career opportunities that come from public speaking. Plus, often when you are doing a panel, you are hanging out with the other movers and shakers in your industry. Business partnerships, again, investing. You have so many great opportunities just because you’re rubbing elbows and sitting side by side with other leaders in your industry. These are the opportunities that help us even the playing field when it comes to pay. pay equity. The perception of being a thought leader and an expert. Every time we’re up on stage, we’re getting that perception cemented in somebody’s brain so that they don’t start thinking about the old white guys when it comes to expertise and leaders. We’re showcasing what is possible to the next generation.

Breaking Stereotypes in Speaking Engagements

[00:31:24] Bobbie Carlton: I did an interview yesterday with two of our speakers who are both professional speakers. One of them talked about how she was inspired by another speaker to start her speaking business. The other one said, I didn’t have that. I didn’t see someone who looked like me on stage. I had to carve my own path. I’m I look at both of those two perspectives and I say wouldn’t it be fantastic if everybody looked up on stage and saw someone who looked like them? Whether it’s a woman, whether it’s a person with disabilities, whether it is someone who has color to their skin, whether we just need somebody who looks like us to let us know what’s possible.

[00:32:13] Suzanne F Stevens: It would also be great to see somebody who looks like us to know it’s possible, but not talk about what is obviously us. So one of the things that I’ve, come across is when I’ve talked to bureaus or event planners, they will say, Suzanne, I’d love to hire a black person.

But everyone that is underrepresented seems to speak on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Maybe they’re a tech expert. I’m talking about leadership,

period, conscious leadership, for everybody. My target may be women, but that doesn’t mean that’s what I speak on.

It’s seeing more of that happening too, where we don’t go to the obvious place to share our expertise, where someone looks at us and says, oh, of course you’re speaking on that because that’s who you are.

[00:33:09] Bobbie Carlton: Yeah. And I think that’s important. We have a phrase in the speaking world, and at least the speaking world that I’m coming from, we call it a mantle, an all male panel. And when you have a mantle, it’s like that’s bad. People can take a picture of that and go, where are the women? There’s also an equal, maybe not as obvious problem when you have an all female panel and they’re being asked to talk about being female in an industry. It’s the panel of women in cybersecurity. It’s the panel of women talking about what it’s like to be a woman in XYZ industry, whatever that is. It’s just as much of a problem if you are being asked to go to a conference and you are not being put on stage with the other CEOs and the other industry experts.

You’re being put on stage with the other women in your industry who, quite frankly, you may have very little in common with. But you’re all women in your industry, so it’s all got to be the same for you, right? Like, that’s just as much of a problem.

We need to be, we need to be asked to speak at conferences based on our areas of expertise.

[00:34:33] Suzanne F Stevens: Yeah. And I, in chatting with you now, I definitely see the opportunity that exists, at Innovation Women. What percentage do you think of your membership are seeking out exposure and visibility versus becoming a professional speaker?

 (START Jun 5 24)

Categories of Speakers and Compensation Models

[00:34:52] Bobbie Carlton: Actually, we haven’t done the numbers on this lately, but we have categories that we ask the speakers to self identify. And it’s actually based on compensation. What is their compensation model? So number one. The compensation is I always get paid to speak, i. e. I am a professional speaker. This is how I make a living. I don’t step foot on stage unless I’m getting a check from the organizers. That’s the first category. Second category is I usually get paid to speak, but I will make exceptions. Often that is still a professional speaker. But their exceptions might be if they got invited to do a TED or a TEDx. Another exception might be they have a non profit that is near and dear to their heart, hopefully in their backyard so they don’t have to travel. They do that as part of a give back. The third category is the category I actually fall into, which is I sometimes get paid for speaking. I will show up at any meeting planner conference and talk to them about diversity, equity, inclusion on stage.

I will talk to them about how they get more women on stage. I will talk for free to anybody who will listen about my mission. I also get paid by corporations to go and speak to their employees. I do some consulting work and actually I often talk to people about, do you really want to be a speaker?

Or do you want to be a facilitator? An emcee?A consultant ?Or a trainer? Like those jobs, they get paid more than speakers a lot of times.The next category is everything is negotiable. Often that’s somebody who’s on the rise. They might be on the cusp of becoming a professional speaker. They might also be very

willing to get paid, who isn’t, but they understand that in their industry, there might not be a lot of payment. And there are people who speak for visibility for themselves and their companies. That might be a corporate evangelist. It might be an entrepreneur who is out pitching their company, or it might be a person who is a subject matter expert who is speaking at conferences and events. The reason we categorize people this way is we don’t want a mismatch. We don’t want a visibility style opportunity to be going after a speaker who is a professional. We don’t want to waste anybody’s time. So that is why those categories are on the Innovation Women profiles. And a good percentage of people on our platform are professional speakers. 25 to 35 percent range based on our last numbers.

[00:37:58] Suzanne F Stevens: Do they get matched that way?

[00:38:01] Bobbie Carlton: They are getting matches. And invitations that way. But they are also looking at our database of speaking opportunities, open calls for speakers, and they are deliberately seeking out the opportunities that are in that 42 percent range that I talked about earlier. And they’re going after the paid opportunities at those events and also the corporate opportunities and the paid opportunities in the 8 percent range.

Measuring the Impact of Innovation Women

[00:38:36] Suzanne F Stevens: So how do you measure the impact of Innovation Women on both the individual women and the broader community?

[00:38:42] Bobbie Carlton: It’s hard. So one of the things about the Innovation Women platform is we are directly connecting event managers and speakers. We are not a traditional speakers bureau. A traditional speakers bureau is negotiating on behalf of the speaker. Their client is the event. They know exactly who’s getting paid and how much, because they’re the, in the driver’s seat for that. They’re negotiating that. So they know everything. We’re directly matching people. So quite frankly, we only know what our speakers tell us. Because calls for speakers are often being fulfilled off our site. It’s literally a link. We don’t even know if a speaker clicks on the link, goes to the website, and fills it out or not. So the only way that we have to measure success is what our speakers tell us.Every speaker on the Innovation Women platform has what we call the Promote Yourself button. And it’s a thinly disguised way of measuring our impact. So every time a speaker gets an opportunity, we’re begging them, please let us know and let us promote your success. So they fill in a form and it sends up some message that says this speaker got this opportunity. So that is literally the only way I have of knowing that a speaker was successful and not every speaker kind of closes the loop in that way.

[00:40:28] Suzanne F Stevens: Yeah.

[00:40:29] Bobbie Carlton: It’s hard.

[00:40:29] Suzanne F Stevens: You have a membership model, so people do pay a nominal fee to become a member, but you also, have an agency. So a PR marketing agency. Innovation Woman is your biggest client of the PR and marketing agency. Can you tell us more about how and why you structured your social initiative as a client of your other business?

The Structure and Benefits of Carleton PR Marketing

[00:40:54] Bobbie Carlton: They’re actually both completely separate companies.

And Innovation Women is the Carleton PR Marketing client because I’m doing marketing for Innovation Women and it’s a little bit of a cheat. In one way. In the 90s, I worked for a big software company that had a traditional business that was shrinking. At the same time, it had an exciting new startup business that was growing. And took the services people, the marketing people, all the different support systems from the shrinking business and just kept kind of keep transferring them over as the startup grew. That’s what we’re doing with Innovation Women.

[00:41:47] Suzanne F Stevens: What other benefits is that structure providing you with?

[00:41:51] Bobbie Carlton: It does mean that, I get best in class marketing.

[00:41:56] Suzanne F Stevens: If I do say so for myself.

[00:41:59] Bobbie Carlton: Absolutely. It does mean that my team gets an exciting mission based client. So Carleton PR Marketing, I absolutely tell people you get to come in and work with some really exciting clients that we have. Our agency supports such exciting clients as New England’s largest distributor of ball bearings.We also work with an exciting startup doing Janus based nanomolecules that are biomimetically grown in outer space.Being able to say, and oh, yes, by the way, I have a mission based public speaking platform, which is helping women grow their careers in their business. That’s a little bit more enticing to new employees.

[00:42:47] Suzanne F Stevens: Yeah, absolutely. There is that reality that the younger generations want to feel good. So are you finding that every single one of them is drawn to innovation women or most of them are and get inspired by that.

[00:43:03] Bobbie Carlton: I think probably everybody on our team at one point or another has been excited and inspired by the work that we’re doing with Innovation Women. And it has also provided them with incredible career opportunities to do things that are experiments. A lot of marketing people, you do these experiments because marketing and marketing technology is always changing. Let’s just put it this way. Clients really don’t like it when you experiment on them, but if you have your own company as a client, you can do exciting experimental marketing. So, the mission is exciting to pretty much everybody on our team, and it’s also the opportunity to do cool, exciting marketing at an experimental level.

[00:44:01] Suzanne F Stevens: Now, how many employees are at Carleton PR Marketing?

[00:44:04] Bobbie Carlton: it’s a little bit complex. We have 12 full time people. We have 3 part time people. And during the pandemic, I engaged in some retail therapy and bought 2 additional companies that came with offshore teams. So we have, 6 full time Event researchers that came in with MySpeakerLeads, which is another model for supporting speakers with speaking opportunities. And we also brought in two people that work very much on Lioness Magazine for the Female Entrepreneur, which is the second company I bought. And Innovation Women bought those two companies. It wasn’t Carleton PR Marketing. It was Innovation Women, because what we’re doing there is, number one, we’ve got the research team. That was a no brainer. Like, in April 2020, There was a research firm for speaking opportunities that kind of threw up their hands and said “we’re done.” And I was like, “I’ll take that firm right here.” Give me that. The second one was a digital magazine for women entrepreneurs. And I said, “Oh yes, I want to support that,” because what it does is it gives me a voice. It also gives our speakers the opportunities to contribute articles so they can keep building on that foundation that lets them be seen as thought leaders and subject matter experts. So it has become part of the Innovation Women offering.

[00:45:51] Suzanne F Stevens: Your retail therapy and my retail therapy are two different things.

[00:45:57] Bobbie Carlton: Yeah, did you buy like new curtains or something?

[00:46:02] Suzanne F Stevens: Shoes.

[00:46:03] Bobbie Carlton: Shoes! But you don’t need

shoes

[00:46:05] Suzanne F Stevens: Yeah, you don’t need shoes during the pandemic, no. Flat ones I’ll tell you.

[00:46:10] Bobbie Carlton: yeah.

Sustainability and Future Vision for Innovation Women

[00:46:11] Suzanne F Stevens: What do you see as the three most important initiatives to make your social impact sustainable?

[00:46:18] Bobbie Carlton: It has to be self supporting. And literally, I say it has to be sustainable. My second company, Innovation Nights, I learned a lot. I come from a public relations background. I’m a marketing person and in the great recession of 2008, all of a sudden I became an entrepreneur and a business owner. I didn’t know what I was doing.In 2009, I started Innovation Nights as a social media sandbox. Again, clients don’t like it when you experiment on them. And I saw social media as an important marketing initiative. So I created Innovation Nights. The idea was to support local entrepreneurs with a product launch event on a monthly basis. We ran 130 events over 11 years. We launched 1, 500 new products that got more than 4 billion in funding. Of which, by the way, I got zero. Innovation Nights never sold a ticket. Innovation Nights never charged an entrepreneur a dime. That’s not sustainable.

[00:47:37] Suzanne F Stevens: No.

[00:47:38] Bobbie Carlton: Now we got sponsorship from big companies who would host our events and who would pay us a small fee to bring in this massive event. It wasn’t a profitable enterprise, but it was education for my team. It was visibility for my marketing firm. It was a sandbox to experiment and learn and grow in social media. It did pay great dividends on that side, but it wasn’t a sustainable adventure.When I started Innovation Women, I said, this has got to be sustainable.

This has got to grow into a business that will support itself. And my fondest wish is that it becomes sustainable to the point where I can stop working a day job and focus my efforts on getting more women on stage at conferences and events. Because that is how we will get paid equally, and how we will see more women in the C suite, more women in the boardroom, and more women seen as experts and thought leaders.

[00:48:50] Suzanne F Stevens: Yeah, our missions are very similar and I kudos to you for, setting, having the capacity and the vision to set all of these up, complementary businesses to amplify women’s voices. It’s a, it’s quite incredible.

[00:49:04] Bobbie Carlton: Yeah, there’s a thread that, that flows through everything and I said it earlier, it’s visibility equals opportunity. And that thread literally goes through every single thing that I do. So if I can get people visible, and I get other people seeing, what’s happening in these exciting places with these incredibly smart, passionate, dedicated people, I can’t imagine that things won’t change.

[00:49:38] Suzanne F Stevens: So what is the future vision for Innovation Women?

[00:49:42] Bobbie Carlton: I want to have a website where people come to find every speaker they need. By the way, there are some men, male allies who are on the Innovation Women platform. They’re few and far between still.We’re focused on the mission, but at the same time, we do welcome non binary individuals. We do welcome trans individuals. We do welcome male allies. I see my primary mission as supporting people who are underrepresented. So I want to be able to kind of service the industry because that is a rising tide that will lift all the boats and I need to get the numbers. That’s one of the reasons you said a nominal fee. Yep, it’s a nominal fee.

It’s 120 dollars a year and it is what will help support us as we support the mission.

[00:50:41] Suzanne F Stevens: We’re going to wrap up soon.

Rapid Fire Questions and Final Thoughts

[00:50:43] Suzanne F Stevens: So I want to get into our rapid fire questions and we have about 12 of them and all we need here, Bobbie, is short, sweet, to the point, and then we’ll close our time together today.

Sound good?

[00:50:57] Bobbie Carlton: Yep, we’re good.

[00:50:59] Suzanne F Stevens: What do you think the most significant thing citizens can do to uplift your beneficiary, which is in your case, women speakers.

[00:51:10] Bobbie Carlton: Pay them equally.

[00:51:13] Suzanne F Stevens: What is one thing you wish you knew prior to engaging down this contribution path?

[00:51:19] Bobbie Carlton: How long it was going to take.

[00:51:24] Suzanne F Stevens: I hear you on that one. What is the worst piece of advice you ever received?

[00:51:30] Bobbie Carlton: Give it away for free.

[00:51:33] Suzanne F Stevens: What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

[00:51:36] Bobbie Carlton: Charge more.

[00:51:40] Suzanne F Stevens: What is one piece of advice you would give to an entrepreneur who wants to have a social impact?

[00:51:45] Bobbie Carlton: Look for a non profit that is already doing what you want to do. Don’t create something new.

What Is one recommendation you would suggest to promote a culture of contribution amongst your employees? Team is what I’m referring to.

I think encouraging others to speak.

[00:52:05] Suzanne F Stevens: Now, I don’t know if you have any children or a daughter for that matter. Two daughters,

[00:52:10] Bobbie Carlton: Two sons

[00:52:11] Suzanne F Stevens: two sons.

[00:52:12] Bobbie Carlton: Who are the biggest feminists I’ve ever met my entire life.

[00:52:15] Suzanne F Stevens: Yay. Love them. I married a feminist, which is awesome. If you had a daughter who was 10 years old today, What advice would you give to her?

[00:52:28] Bobbie Carlton: This is a great question because I worked for a tween book brand before I started my own companies, and I think it’s all very focused on believing in yourself and positive self esteem.

[00:52:44] Suzanne F Stevens: What advice do you wish you received at 10?

[00:52:47] Bobbie Carlton: Take public speaking classes.

[00:52:50] Suzanne F Stevens: What is the one thing you had to do that makes you uncomfortable, but if you didn’t do it, you would not have the social impact you have achieved?

[00:52:59] Bobbie Carlton: Public speaking. I’m an introvert.

[00:53:04] Suzanne F Stevens: Who’s the greatest female influence in your life and why?

[00:53:09] Bobbie Carlton: I think it’s a team of them and it’s the people that I work with on a daily basis.

[00:53:15] Suzanne F Stevens: Why is that?

[00:53:16] Bobbie Carlton: They are absolutely incredible. I love them all, and they are just, they are mission driven as well. And I appreciate all that they do for the company and for our guests.

What three values

[00:53:34] Suzanne F Stevens: do you live by?

[00:53:36] Bobbie Carlton: Speak the truth. Support others. And give first.

[00:53:42] Suzanne F Stevens: Give first, but ask for money in return.

[00:53:49] Bobbie Carlton: Give first is such a fraught thing because I do think that give first is a position born of privilege. Not everyone can afford to give first. So I’m at a point in my life where I might not be able to give first. I’m kind of on that cusp because I’m doing mission based companies, but at the same time, it still is what comes naturally.

[00:54:16] Suzanne F Stevens: Thanks for that.A book that you would recommend for others to read and why?

[00:54:22] Bobbie Carlton: Josh Bernoff’s book, about Build a Better Business book because I do believe as speakers often we have to build the foundation for our expertise. Is excellent. And I just finished another one Making it in America by Rachel Slade. Talking about the importance of manufacturing and the importance of manufacturing products in our own backyard versus manufacturing them overseas.

[00:54:51] Suzanne F Stevens: Great suggestions. Beside yours, which beneficiary do you think needs the most investment of time, research, and money?

[00:55:00] Bobbie Carlton: People with disabilities.

[00:55:02] Suzanne F Stevens: Please do listen to the podcast we just launched as it was, it’s an excellent podcast and a very passionate and knowledgeable woman, speaking on disabilities, so it’s Just launched today. Where can’t people reach you, Bobbie?

[00:55:21] Bobbie Carlton: Come and find me at innovationwomen. com and also everybody’s invited to a Speaker Friend Friday. Drop in. You don’t have to be a member to join us.

[00:55:32] Suzanne F Stevens: Great. Now, do you have any final words of wisdom for our audience regarding making a conscious contribution to society?

[00:55:40] Bobbie Carlton: Get comfortable with public speaking. Make your voice heard.

[00:55:47] Suzanne F Stevens: Thank you so much, Bobbie Carlton, for sharing your insight and your inspiration and social impact. And thanks for coming on the pricing journey with me as well. No scars on either one of us, I don’t think.

[00:56:00] Bobbie Carlton: We’re really, we really are on the same side.

[00:56:03] Suzanne F Stevens: I think so too. To discover more podcasts with impact leaders transforming where we live and work with sustainable social solutions, please visit podcast. You Me We. ca. Please like, share, and subscribe. Until next time, I’m Suzanne F. Stevens, and I encourage you to make your contribution count for You. Me. We.

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