Wearing your heart on your earlobes
Recently we joined a fabulous women in business community called One Roof. It’s excellent, there’s Masterclasses and Monday Power Ups and they even profiled the GET IT! Store for Mother’s Day.
As part of joining, members are invited to submit a Profile outlining some highlights of their career to date, what you’re doing right now and how they can best promote your work. It’s a small business owners’ dream. So here’s ours!
Tell us about your career journey to date
Hey! I’m Carmen (she/her) - writer of words, wearer of big earrings, teller of stories, and giver of rousing pep talks. I was born on Wurundjeri land and am now thankful to call Gadigal land home.
I started out in women’s health and community engagement, before co-founding non-profit The Global Women’s Project, which joins forces with remarkable grassroots women's organisations in Nepal, Cambodia and Burundi to provide education and vocational training, skills and access to whatever support they need. Finding my passion in comms + social media for social good, I spent the better part of a decade helping non-profits with small budgets but big hearts to bring their brands and communities to life.
Yet, after feeling a little burnt out by #notforprofitlife and also really inspired by what was happening in the B Corp movement and social enterprise sector, I decided to combine my ability to tell a good story and write a scroll-stopping bit of comms to help businesses doing good to do even better.
Tell us about what you’re currently doing
These days I pour most of my creativity and energy into my business: CARMEN GET IT!® where I help awesome folks inject more strategy, storytelling and sass into their copy and communications. I also get to design and sell cute accessories that remind people, and those around them, to swing big and chase their dreams.
I feel like I get to work with the most badass people every day, who are committed to empathy, authenticity, radical transparency and doing good. From Australia’s first super fund for women by women (Verve) to a woman-run tech start-up keeping fashion out of landfill for longer (AirRobe) and even a badass accountant for women in business (The Women’s Accountant). What's not to love?
Any career highlights that you’d like to share?
Like I said, I’ve been so fortunate to be part of some great work with even better people. From my early days running 16 Days of Activism + Week Without Violence with Women’s Health In the North (WHIN), to raising over a quarter million dollars with The Global Women’s Project for women and their families impacted by the earthquakes in Nepal, and now getting to run my own business and wear ridiculous earrings - there's lots to be proud of.
But if I had to choose, it would be creating and helping coordinate a feminist art extravaganza called Trailblazing Women of Herstory back in 2016 alongside some extremely talented women and artists to raise money for The Global's Women's Project.
Artists, both established and emerging, were invited to create or enter a portrait of a woman they believed to be a trailblazer. We ended up with 39 portraits from 37 incredible artists and a calendar of events that ran throughout the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. It was so extraordinary and to have the chance to give opportunities to artists from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds, or young artists, to exhibit alongside Archibald Prize finalists was a thrill.
If I could take the opportunity to share one more - it would be helping to be Birth for Humankind’s ‘campaign doula’ and run their annual World Doula Week campaign for a few years in a row to raise much-needed funds so that women experiencing disadvantage could access free doula support.
It was one of the great privileges of my life to support these remarkable women.
[Image: Nynno Bel-Air]
Many of these women were recently arrived, had given birth in refugee camps or detention centres, didn't speak English as a first language, or women experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity, to tell their stories in an ethical and empowering way. The stories are all up on Birth for Humankind’s Medium page and I hope that anyone who can, will support their life-changing work through the Be The Village campaign running right now.
What lights you up?
Ever since I can remember, I have been passionate about justice, equity, and inclusion. As you can imagine, that made for *all of the feels* growing up until I found a way to channel that passion into something meaningful and helpful.
I do what I do, because I can.
Because I have privilege, and therefore a responsibility to use what I have in service of a better world.
Because the cost of inaction is too high.
Because inequality and injustice are not inevitable.
Because the world needs all of us to harness our unique gifts, skills, and voice to make it a more compassionate, equal and inclusive place.
I believe that we owe it to the people who came before us, the people who will come after us, and the people here with us right now - to be bold, to be courageous, and to show up as our full and wholehearted selves. That’s what I’m here to do, that’s what lights me up.
Zooming out a little, what about a life highlight?
Of course I'm not going to sit here and say that 2020 was easy, for anybody. And like a lot of people, I was 'stranded' a thousand kilometres from my family. However, with the blessing of an internet connection and a phone, I had the great honour of sharing a Friday afternoon FaceTime with my 98 year old Nan and spiritual guru every week.
This woman is a marvel and every moment I spend with her is a true joy. To have the chance to connect with her in a different way, also knowing that she was safe in her nursing home without everyone bringing their germs in, was a privilege and one I do not take for granted knowing that so many were not so fortunate.
During our Friday afternoon FaceTime's - I tried to wear a different pair of big and bright earrings to brighten her day (and mine), and they never failed to provide a moment of conversation and levity in amongst a pretty heavy year.
On one particular Friday in August, I was wearing some fabulously long purple tassel earrings by the talented Kat Margarita Designs.
Nan, who used to be an Avon Lady back in the day, selling makeup and goodies door to door in a big country town, remarked: 'wow, wouldn't it be great if you could take the tassels off and swap them to another colour.' Slow down there Coco Chanel...let me write this down!
And so I set to work to create the piece de resistance for the GET IT! Store, that I launched in November 2020. With Kat Margarita's extraordinary talents, we were able to create the ever-fabulous 'Tassel Magic' earrings, featuring three brightly coloured tassels that you can remove and change to suit your mood or your outfit, designed by none other than my amazing Nan, Pauline! Pretty cool.
So, when lockdown and border restrictions lifted - I jumped in the car, with a pair of Tassel Magic on the front seat, and headed straight for Nan. To be able to share the designs with her and see her hold them up to her ears and give her signature chuckle was enough to make my poor pandemic heart sing.
Significant challenge you have overcome
Like any woman I've had my fair share of challenges. Granted - my race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality have never been one of them - and so this is said from a position of relative privilege. But I've survived a pretty catastrophic health crisis and spent significant periods of time in hospital and in and out of doctors offices.
I've been fired. I've been broke and burnt out. I've had my fair share of mental health challenges and experienced PTSD. Not to gloss over any of those things, because they have certainly shaped who I am, and how I live and run my business, but I'm lucky enough to be here to tell the tales, and for that I’m exceptionally grateful.
Tell us about your inspirations
I am inspired by anyone who lives an authentic life and is not limited by what others think of them. Women like Baddie Winkel, Lily Tomlin, Roxane Gay, Tess Holliday, Carly Findlay, Lizzo and about a zillion more - who challenge stereotypes, use their platform to educate and make the world safer for others to exist in it.
I am also inspired by the people I work with, my family, and the many fierce and resilient grassroots activists who have come before me, without whose sacrifices I wouldn’t be here doing what I do.
What does the future hold?
Great question! I hope that, over the next 5-10 years, I'll have written a lot more words and perhaps be working on my first book; I'll have helped a lot more organisations with their comms and storytelling; and that I have helped create meaningful change for women through a few more successful advocacy or fundraising campaigns. I also hope that my online store is thriving, there's no more 9 to 5'ing, and I've got my super balance back up on par with everyone else so I can eventually retire in the Bahamas ;)
Oh, and Carlton will have won a premiership. A gal can dream...
Image: Chandel Brandimarti @studioprose_
Most valuable piece of advice
You're never going to wake up and think: 'finally, I've done it! I've arrived!' Your goals will evolve as you do, we are geared to move forward, so it's important to celebrate those small wins and joy-filled moments along the way. Otherwise it can be pretty damned hard to tell one day from the next.
Life motto
No one else can be you, so just do what you do. (Thanks Nan!)
Daily rituals
I eat breakfast every morning. I meditate every day. I check my bank balance. I write a to-do list in the morning as well as a 'to-be' list with one quality or intention I really want to bring into the day. I don't sit with emails open or have notification badges on my phone. I send a message or letter to someone I love. And I wear earrings and lipstick every day. They make me feel powerful and alive, regardless of the fact that I'm working from home and likely in my pyjamas!
Something people might find surprising about you
I am an AFL and AFLW fanatic and I have had the privilege of coaching the local girls Under 18s footy team up here in Sydney, three years running.
Tell your younger self one thing
Don't worry if every body else doesn't like you, worry about whether you like you? Oh, and don't eat Minties - they'll end up costing you a fortune in root canals and crowns.
A big thank you to the One Roof team for bringing this profile to life, and you can read the full interview on the One Roof website here. I’m hella grateful that women in business like me can benefit from the support and the skills in the One Roof community. If you’re curious about joining, I highly recommend checking out a One Roof digital membership.
