Building a lifelong ecosystem for women: one founder's awakening | Deborah Williams, The Women's Association

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In this week's episode, Stephanie Melodia interviews Deborah Williams, the Founder & CEO of The Women’s Association, building a lifelong ecosystem to ensure women and girls have the support they need to reach their full potential at every stage of life.

Founded in 2018 after Deborah was "awakened" by research for her dissertation exploring the stories of women in leadership across industries, The Women's Association has grown into a powerful force for gender equality. Deborah also holds an MA in Gender and Women's Studies in Sociology from Lancaster University, which provided the foundation for her life's work.

Watch on YouTube via the link below or keep reading for the transcript, where Steph and Deborah discuss:

• The Awakening: Discovering gender inequality through dissertation research

  Deborah's university dissertation on women in leadership revealed that female representation had actually declined. A pivotal interview with a senior architect who broke down about hitting a glass ceiling—despite working at a top firm—sparked her mission to address workplace inequality.
  

• Overcoming self-doubt whilst building a mission-driven organisation

  Despite identifying a critical problem, Deborah struggled with low confidence. She learnt that her authentic, easygoing approach—contrary to stereotypical "bullish" entrepreneurship—was actually her strength, with people consistently gravitating towards her genuine passion.
  

• The burden of awareness: when you can't "un-see" injustice

  Deborah described her discovery as both a passion and a burden. The weight of knowing about systemic discrimination and workplace harassment created a responsibility to act, even when she wanted to follow a more conventional, comfortable career path.
  

• Building a lifelong ecosystem vs short-term solutions

  The Women's Association evolved from one-off events to recognising that ongoing inequalities require lifelong, continuous support. The ecosystem aims to provide sustained access to opportunities, mentorship, community, and career development throughout women's lives, regardless of job changes.
  

• Early intervention: protecting girls' confidence before it's lost

  Research shows girls as young as 8 begin internalising gendered messaging. Deborah works with girls aged 12-18, focusing on self-love and confidence before societal pressures around appearance and ability take hold during the crucial primary-to-secondary school transition.
  

• The social trap: connection with anxiety

  A survey revealed social media made girls feel equally anxious as connected. Constantly changing beauty standards, lack of diverse representation, and emphasis on appearance contribute to mental health struggles, making this a critical concern for young women's development.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LicvpVKx4yQ

SM: So, I specifically kept in that wording around you being "awakened" during your dissertation. Was there a specific discovery that led to this mission you're on now?

DW: Yeah, there was actually; I was studying business and management at for my first degree at university, and I was doing my dissertation. I've always been kind of fascinated by the concept of leadership, not because I actually saw myself as a leader, but because I constant constantly, for our education, got put in leadership positions even when I was trying to hide away from leadership. So I would always like, someone would say we need a leader for this project, and I would not put my hand up, not make eye contact, and I'd always get picked and tossed. So it made me fascinated by the concept of leadership. So when it came to my dissertation, I thought, I wanna do something called leadership.

My tutor at the time said leadership is way too broad, specific area. And so then he literally googled in his office topics around leadership, like women, something something. I can't remember what you put in there. So then he brought up the concept of women in leadership. So I was like, okay, I'm a woman. Leadership is interesting. Let me explore. And so very quickly, I and I like to say naively decided that my dissertation was gonna be on how far women had come and, like, everything that was right about women in leadership. And so I was at a call looking for, like, pieces of, like, research that could back up my title, and I couldn't find it.

And I remember at the time there was an article in The Guardian, I think it was, that said women in leadership positions are less than they were ten years before. Wow. And so I was like, what? Literally It's gone in the wrong direction. A 100%.

That was the moment that I was like, okay. Now I need to understand why. And then I need to understand why they've not told us this. Yeah. And because in education, we were always told that girls outperform.

So naturally, you think when you get to the workplace, women will be at the top because we got the best grades, quote, unquote. So I was like, how does this make sense that it's actually actually gone backwards? So then I was like, okay. I'm gonna need to speak to people and build my own research. So I was going around interviewing different senior leaders in different industries, retail, built environment, education, just just to understand what their experiences were and why I was seeing all of this stuff online.

And all of it was going fine. And the last interview that I'll never forget, went to a glass building, really tall glass building. And I remember asking my boyfriend at the time to come with me because when I googled the building, I was like, they're gonna send me out because I don't know like I belong there. So if if they send me out, just wait at the bus stop for me and I'll come out. Even though I had an appointment, I just had that assumption that I didn't look like I belonged.

So went in, had the interview, great interview, packing my bags away, finished everything, and she literally burst into tears. And, obviously, I'm a university like, university student. I'm thinking, what did I say? What did I do? Right.

What's happening? And she was like, I just spoke to you about my love for architecture, but I'm actually about, like, prep leave because I've hit a ceiling. And everything she spoke to me about wasn't about that ceiling. It was about her love for it and how far she's come, how proud she is of herself. And she was like, I feel like I've misrepresented myself and, like, the reality of what I'm going through to you.

So I just need to tell you, this is my reality. I'm leaving the industry. I'm going to work in psychology. And I was like, is there no hope for you to, like, get into a higher position somewhere else? And she was like, I'm working in one of the top three in this industry.

If I'm if I've got to this ceiling at this point, what's to say I won't reach the same ceiling? And she literally said to me, I'll never, like, forget this. She said, when I go to the rooms of when they're about to pick who's gonna be promoted, the men always rotate, the women stay the same. And I'm not gonna leave and go to the pub after work to schmooze my way to the top. I'm gonna stay true to myself.

I'm a mum. I have a family. So I'm not gonna do that. And that feels like the only way I'm gonna get there. I remember coming out of that interview and I was to do something.

I don't know what it is that I'm gonna do, but I need to do something. But then the catch is I had extreme low confidence, didn't believe in myself, wanted to be told what direction to go into. So it was like, how am I with the way I am, gonna build anything that's gonna change the experiences of women like this or future women? What year was this? Can I fact check?

2013. Right. So, like, over ten years ago. Yeah. No.

Literally. So, literally what awakened me because before that, I didn't even know this was a thing. I didn't know that women in leadership was a conversation, women in the workplace was a conversation. I just naively assumed we're all just like This validates your work even more so Yeah. Because you didn't go out.

You didn't set out to find the research to fit your thesis. No. The opposite happened Yeah. Which is so much more powerful Yeah. To naively, as you put it, look at the you know, gather the evidence for for the positive side of it and struggling to find that and the truth kind of revealing itself to you.

Can I also just to get it straight, this really powerful interview you had, I'm covered in goosebumps listening to you on that story? The main bit of this interview was this woman telling you what just what what she thought she should be saying and sort of giving you the parting lines 100%. As opposed to the reality. Yeah. So she was definitely so powerful.

In that interview, she was organization. Yeah. Right. When it was time to leave, she became The master. Myself.

And and so it was like, I've told you stuff, but this is the actual truth. Yeah. And I'm so glad that I got that truth because it just helped to to really put stuff into perspective. And even during that, dissertation period, I remember I spoke to a woman and she was like she was the only woman on the board. It was time for a board meeting.

She came in. Her boss pulled her onto his lap and sat the table and was like, now we're ready. What? I go and everyone laughed. And I was like naively again.

I was like, so is was he arrested? What happened to you? Was he reprimanded? And she whispered and she said, he's next door. I was like and she was like, I'm in my sixties.

I'm at the end of my career. What's the point? This is sickening. Like, do you feel sick? And imagine, feel it, a university student Yeah.

That's got all these dreams and hopes for what I'm gonna do in the future. Yeah. And now I've just been, like, slapped by this reality. Yeah. And it's like, what am I gonna do?

How do I then become another story, women's stories, or do I do something to change it and try and do something about it? And that's where it was like, I need to do something. I don't know how Yeah. But I need to. Well, sat here in 2026, spoiler alert, she did do something about it.

So what are those next steps? Like, let's go back to you leaving that glass high rise. I really appreciate you sort of painting a mental image there of that building and immediately you sort of saying, I'm not I don't belong here and everything else. So you leave, you meet your boyfriend who's waiting for you. Yeah.

I assume you shared with him, like, what you just experienced. Yeah. What do you do next? And and especially with, you know, I know the power of role models, for example, you're kind of alluding to, like, someone like me, someone who looks like me. Yeah.

Did you have anyone to look to? Were there any practical steps you took to Yeah. No. So I didn't have anyone to look to. I feel like that was the first time I stepped out of line.

I was very much someone that just, where you tell me I need to be Yeah. I'll be there. Yeah. How long I need to be there for, just tell me and I'll do it. Mhmm.

And that was the first time I was like, oh, I'm gonna schlumming out. And what ended up happening was I spoke to my boyfriend and he was very entrepreneurial. And so he was, like, pushing me. Because I was, like, I need to do something right. Yeah.

It was like I was still waiting for that person to tell me To still give you permission. A 100%. And he was that right person to do that. Is that what you said? And so then the first thing I did was I wanted to bring more of the types of women that I sat down with to speak to my friends at uni Yeah.

And, like, for them to see the reality. I felt like the I'd just see in the curtain pulled, and none of them none of them got it. None of them understood it. And because of ethics, I couldn't go into detail of the conversations I had. So it was like, okay.

How do I get them to understand? Let me invite women to speak to them. And let's just go from there. And to be fair, at first, I thought, let me just do this one moment, this one event. Interesting.

And we'll leave it at that. The event was like it was so, like, basic, very, very beginner. No mics. Yeah. You could hear every, like, literally, paper that was rustled and all that kind of stuff.

It was just I just need you guys to hear what's happening. Yeah. I was telling them that's this. Is about. So let's hear it.

Yeah. And then after that, we had a 150 women sign up, and we only had a space for 50. Wow. And then I got emails and was like, when's the next one? When's the next one?

And I was like, there is no next one. Like, what do I do now? And then that's kind of where this journey started. A real validation point in your entrepreneurial journey. I mean, I can imagine maybe even at this point, you're not even calling yourself an entrepreneur.

No. Even though you are, even though you've identified a real problem Yeah. You're setting out to find a solution, and you're not kind of wasn't built in a day, you're just taking small baby steps, you're doing something that feels, like, within your power. What Yeah. Are the resources available to me right here, right now?

What can I do? And I think too often people do think of, like, oh, the big picture, the big vision, everything else. It's like, literally, I know it's such a cliche, but, like, start small, start making, you know, baby steps, start making moves, and along the way, not only does that break down and remove the overwhelm for you, but you're gathering that market validation, even though you weren't probably weren't aware that was what you were doing. But getting that onto getting that uptake Yeah. That's what it was.

It was it was market validation in your early entrepreneurial journey. These emails to stop. I need to I need them to go away. Stop telling me I need to do more. I just don't wanna do anything.

So my next question was going to be around you describe being burdened by this passion. Yeah. And I feel like you've already touched on that, but I'd love to hear more about I guess what you've sort of said here is what you've seen you can't unsee. Yeah. And it's this case of, like, do something.

Yeah. So can you expand on Yeah. Yeah. That expression? I think for me, I believed in the change that needed to happen more than I believed in my ability to be that change.

Yeah. So it was like, okay, if I don't believe in myself, how am I going to lead this vision? And so my first thing was, who can I work for that's doing something in this space that I can support and they can tell me what to do again, and I can just follow their lead? And at the time, I felt like the focus won what I had just discovered. So when I was hearing people talk about women in the workplace at that time, the focus was on how do we get from 5% women in leadership to 15%.

But I've just spoken to women who are the 5% whose experiences are rubbish. So it's not about how do you increase the number. It's how do you improve the experience. And stop that 5% getting smaller Exactly. Than leaving.

A 100%. And no one's talking about the experience. Everyone's talking about the number because numbers are easy to navigate. Experiences are more unpredictable. So then I was like, okay.

I want to create something that focuses on the woman. And then later on, it became focuses on the girl as opposed to putting any kind of number to it. And it was a burden and passion because I didn't want it. Like, I didn't I almost didn't want to have discovered this thing. I I just wanted to to go down that familiar path that I was used to.

Yeah. Everyone understood. Yeah. Everyone could celebrate. If I got a top job in and I was working in Canary Wharf, amazing.

I'm doing business. What are you doing? Like, I didn't wanna deal with that. Just, like, ignorance is bliss. Right?

Like 100%. Then I don't wanna see the brothers. No problem. Yeah. Larnita, carry on.

But it was weight like, a a heavy weight on my shoulders Yeah. Because I've now discovered this thing. And then also a part of me knows that I have the ability somewhere deep inside to do something about it, but I'm too scared to uncover that ability. So I'm just now, like, pacing through life, not expecting that something is gonna bring that thing out of you, and it now has. So we'll talk more about the women's association and better understand, you know, what what it is exactly, how you're having that impact.

But sticking with this self confidence journey for you for a sec because, of course, there's enough there. There's a spark. You said that you had your boyfriend in those early days who supported you, entrepreneurial himself. I imagine that reception after that event was really encouraging. Yeah.

Was there anything else along your journey that's helping you to to prove to yourself that you can do this? I think I think it's how people interact with me because I never felt like I had something about myself. Like and but then I appreciated that there's just something that makes people wanna support what I'm doing. Even if I don't have a name for it, I don't have a full foolproof idea. Something makes people gravitate towards me.

And I think that helps me to appreciate that there probably is something that you just don't understand or you've not been shown it. You've not, like, been encouraged from a young age that you are this person. You're unique and you're etcetera, etcetera. So I think seeing that and seeing how people reacted to at this time, I'm literally just going to different events and I'm connecting with people. I have no I don't even know how many different pictures I gave at every event of what I'm doing because I didn't have a strong idea of what I was building.

But whatever I said, I really felt like people gravitated towards it, and they would give me a card. And I remember there was one event that I went to. It was a women in finance event, and the main speaker was just amazing. And I was like, I need to speak to her. I'm not gonna speak to her.

I can't speak to her. And so I was like, okay. I'm gonna get my stuff and go. I called again my boyfriend at the time. I was like, I really wanna speak to this woman.

He's now my husband, by the way. I was I was wondering. I was like, is the boyfriend still in the picture? I'm very happy to hear. He's now your husband.

Shout out. What's his name? Syphus. Syphus. Syphus.

Syphus. Shout out to Syphus. Yeah. Man allyship in action. 100%.

Lifting supporting women. I love it. And he was like, just go speak to her. She's just another person. I didn't speak to her.

But, like, I literally was heading for the door, got my bag, and came over to get her bag at the same time. My god. Meant to be. 100%. I was like, I need to speak to you now because you've literally come over here.

I don't know what spiel I gave her. And she was like, I've got this one last card that I was about to give someone, but I really wanna give it to you. And I was like, well, where you've promised it to someone, don't not give it to them. I will take a picture of it, and I'll be in contact. And that person is has been an adviser since that time, e even on to kind of me actually building the women's association and to where I am now.

This is spine tingling. Like, moment of these, you can't help but question No. Yeah. Some other force, destiny manifesting, divine timing. Yeah.

Do you believe in any of those Yeah. No. I I am a very strong believer in God and the fact that, like, for me, even in times when I didn't fully understand God or my relationship with God, I just felt like you're always looking out for me. And, like, I'm trying to figure it out as I go. And even in the mess of what feels like it is in my mind, there's much clarity Mhmm.

And so many different moves that are being made even when I didn't feel like I deserved it. Like, getting companies to sign up to a program that I was still, like, figuring it out, and I don't know how I'm gonna do it, and getting them to buy into. And I'm just I always would ask why. People would offer me stuff, free things. And I'm just like, why?

It's so horrible, Deborah. No. Honestly. I honestly. And I remember there was one meeting.

I literally asked the guy. He was like, it's event space. It's a really big event space, really well known, and you can do events here every month for free. Why? So I was like, I I don't wanna ask this, but why did you just offer me that?

And he was like, there's just something about you. What is it about me that I I really wanna know what this thing is? But I feel like that gave me the confidence that figuring it out on the go and being the way I am is not a disadvantage. I was taught that in business, you have to be you have to take risk, and you you have to, like, be almost bullish in your approach and take no for an answer and all this stuff. And that is I'm the complete opposite of that.

I am just you take like, take me as you as you see me kind of thing. Like, I'm very easygoing, very like, I will be overly honest to people. Mhmm. And so it was like, I just never saw myself in what people class as entrepreneur, which is why I don't even use it Yeah. For myself.

Yeah. Yeah. And so it's just seeing that that I could be myself and I can whilst I'm figuring out made me feel like, okay. When I figured this thing out, I'm I really believe in not just the vision, but my ability to make that vision happen. Amazing.

There's just too many good things. There's just too many especially that speaker crossing paths with them as well was just like, that was spooky. Yeah. That it becomes unignorable. Right?

Like, you're sent, you know, the same message Yeah. As many times as you need to hear it and act on it. And as much as you definitely you're more you're more kind of a chaste, you definitely have that kinda, like, more easygoing kinda energy and stuff, which I can see people really kind of loving and respecting and admiring about you, but I think it would be remiss of us to also not mention the strength of the mission. And you're saying about kind of these opportunities falling in your lap and attracting these things and everything falling into place. It it does speak to the mission that you're on.

Right? And I think maybe that's where, again, to the overwhelm that some founders might feel, it's like it's all on me, it's all on, like, what I'm building, what I'm doing, like but if, again, you're solving a real and it's getting people worked up and people can easily understand it, you you know, that's half the battle. Yeah. Yeah. I know.

Yeah. So with the women's association Yeah. I'm gonna read out my notes here. So you're building an ecosystem, I love this, to help women and girls to make their dreams a reality. Yeah.

Because I'm quite here, when you have the right support around you, your dreams stand a real chance. So tell us more about this ecosystem that you're building and tangibly how this heavily girls and women, but society as a whole. Yeah. So I think very early on and throughout building the Women's Association, I wanted to make sure that I have real contact with the people that I'm building this for. Because because I didn't start from I just wanna be an entrepreneur, which is not a negative way of starting, but that wasn't my journey.

Yeah. I wanted to make sure that if I'm gonna keep doing this, it's not just for the sake of saying I have a business. Yeah. It's because it's really helping the people that I said I wanna help. So I will always multiple women, multiple girls every year, to check-in.

Where are we now? How what what's happening? What's going on for you? Etcetera, etcetera. So then I got to a place where it was a lot of information.

It was domestic abuse. It was workplace, discrimination. It was the motherhood penalty. It was so many different things Yeah. That I had no idea where to start.

These events felt like nothing compared to what is actually happening. And so I've gone through throughout the because I actively started the business in 2021. Like, it I founded it before that, but, actually, since 2021 for the women's association. And it started off as, okay, I wanna do as many programs as possible and events to make sure that women and girls constantly have a space that they can go to every year where they can be inspired, they can be upskilled, they can build community, and they can be themselves. And then I think in the last couple years, what I realized is whatever the solution is needs to be as ongoing and as intense as these inequalities that we're facing are.

And so yeah. And so as much as I have within my business currently, three month program. I have a one week program. I have one day like, insight days. But the reality is for us to really combat the inequalities, it needs to be lifelong.

It needs to be ongoing. And you have some women who I work at this amazing company, for example, and they support me in x, y, z ways. And then I need to leave that company for whatever reason. Another company, I don't have that same support. Why should their support end because they've left an organization?

That support is needed and and it's it's helping. So for me, it's like, okay. If I'm gonna build something, I want it to be lifelong. I want it to be an ecosystem of support where we have people, we have companies that understand the need for the support and are working with us to create as many opportunities for women and girls, in a year, because the inequalities we face don't have a start and end. They are ongoing.

They just evolve over time. Yeah. 100%. And so Sorry. No.

I was just gonna say with the myriad of, you know, problems, you know, that's just the tip of the iceberg. You mentioned a few there. Are there any top problems that you're focused on solving with the women's association? So right now, our main focus is on careers. Yeah.

And, for girls, it's on access to, organizations, to opportunities. So we work with a lot of girls from lower socioeconomic backgrounds who have never had work experience, have never had a mentor, and we focus on giving them their first act. For women, it's about supporting where they are and where they want to be and removing as many barriers in between Amazing. By creating opportunities, programs Yeah. Again, but then also community.

And so that women can support each other Fantastic. Whilst I'm still working to build what this ecosystem wants to look like. Yeah. Because it takes commitment from companies, etcetera. Yeah.

That focus makes a lot of sense. Right? The career development, it feeds into the financial empowerment, the progression, the self empowerment in a very kind of real practical. This is a myriad of of all these different problems, but that does feel like a very, kind of, good cornerstone to start, kind of, tackling the rest. Because I think when you're doing well, especially if you've got the financial means Yeah.

When you've got that self respect and everything else, it I would, you know, imagine it does make some things like leaving a toxic relationship that bit easier. Right? Because you've got the means, because you've got the self respect and confidence. Yeah. And then you mentioned as well about focusing on younger women, girls.

Is there a particular age that you've seen that girls are the most susceptible? It's a good question. I feel like we we've worked with girls from as young as 12, all the way to 18. And I think at 12, the concept of future is very hard to grasp for some girls, not all girls. And so creating opportunities for them, it's like this was an amazing experience.

Yeah. But what does this really mean? Yeah. Whereas when you get to, like, the 16 to 80, they're thinking about their future. Yeah.

But where we do, find it beneficial to work with the younger age group is the their understanding of self and the influence of other things, other noises that make them question their self. This is exactly what it's gonna come on to. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah.

Because what I'm kinda gleaning from that, and correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds as though, you know, you get in there early enough Yeah. Before they're even starting to, like, properly think about it and more crucially to your point, before they're perhaps negative influences Yeah. Or confidence knocks to help kinda get them on that right track. So again, sort of similar question in the point in a girl or young woman's journey. I don't know if you have the data on this, but is there also another point where and they may be more susceptible to outside influence?

So it's actually before 12. It's I think there was a study on this. It was, especially now for this younger generation where they have access to tech so much more, I think it was I think it was eight years old where they start to become more aware Wow. Of outside voices. Wow.

And so what what I've spoken to a lot of primary school teachers, and what they see is you have kids that come in nursery reception, and they're so bubbly. They don't care about being, like, anything. They're just exploring. Yeah. And then by the time they get to year five, year six, this idea of what's cool, what's not cool is so high on their agenda.

Yeah. They become more reserved Yeah. Quieter. Mhmm. And then when they go to secondary school, the first couple years of secondary school are brutal because because for girls is put on how you look.

Mhmm. And so if you don't have the cliche look, you're automatically kind of sidelined. Mhmm. And then that affects how you see yourself. That affects your confidence.

That affects what opportunities you put yourself forward for. So with the younger years, we do a lot of work on self and loving yourself. And I've even been starting to look at how we can work with girls from year five and six Yeah. To help limit that, that impact that it has on them at that age so that we're not at a point where it's already the damage is done. Exactly.

Yeah. Oh, Deborah, I love it. What a fantastic mission. Are there any other externalities you can talk to that influence a girl's confidence when she starts to get to that age? Because, like, I remember coming across this study about girls' self confidence just like nose diving in puberty.

Yeah. And you mentioned there around, like, social media exacerbating that. I guess, is there anything else that's more just kinda, like, the unconscious bias, the systemic problems of, like, women's place in society so much? Yeah. Tell me about that.

100%. So we did a a research piece a couple years back. Yeah. A couple years back now, where we wanted to understand when girls first understand that they're different to boys. Mhmm.

Because obviously, from a very young age, at first, everyone is just the same and and there's not a real difference. And one of the girls said something that was so profound and it stuck with me. She was like, the first time she understood that she was different from a boy was when she was in primary school and the teacher said, can I get two strong boys to to help me pull the TV into the room because they were gonna watch something? And she was like, I could have done like, I'm strong enough to do that. And that was primary school.

And she was like she just questioned it in her mind, but then she left it. And then there was a consistent idea of when it's anything sporty or anything, that engages like, that involves movement and heavy lifting or whatever it is, boys would always get picked. Mhmm. And then it was like girls are always being corrected for their posture, their the way they sit, how where their is sitting, etcetera. So then she was like, I understand that boys are kind of their strength is what's focused on in girls.

It's their looks. And I'm thinking you understood that at in primary school. And then you then fast forward to now and you look at social media and how that consistently puts women in a specific box. Yeah. And places emphasis on how we look even more so.

And the image of what a a perfect, quote, unquote, woman looks like is always changing. It's like, okay. So if today it's it's a really slim woman, should I lose weight to become really slim? And then tomorrow it's curves, but in the right places. So then should I then change my body to that?

And you have girls that are really struggling, and they're just looking online, and they don't see themselves represented. And even when they do, it's cut it's it's very far and few few far between whatever the statement is. Yeah. And so it's like it's not enough to make them feel like I'm good enough. Yeah.

And, like, I've spoken to so many girls about it. They've been on the verge of they've been sent to get mental health support because they can like, considering suicide Wow. To girls that are just like, it doesn't make me feel good about myself. Yeah. And we did a a a survey last year where we said, okay.

How does social media make you feel? And I think we had, like, hundreds of girls fill it in, and it was equal anxious as it was connected. So one of the biggest issues is is making them feel

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Strategy & Tragedy: CEO Stories with Steph Melodia is the best podcast for curious entrepreneurs and ambitious founders. Learn from those a few steps ahead of you in these candid interviews of the highs and lows of scaling and failing business.

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About Stephanie Melodia:

As ex-CEO of an award-winning marketing agency, Stephanie now hosts Strategy & Tragedy, advises MBA students with Oneday, coaches founders 1:1, and travels the world as an international keynote speaker on her signature subject of ‘Hacking Luck.’

She has delivered impactful sessions for household brand names including Qatar Airways, Soho House, WeTransfer, LinkedIn, Xero, Harvey Nash Group, Web Summit, and more - leaving audiences feeling inspired, motivated, and energised.

Book Steph to speak at your next event here.