Co-founder of SpeakHer Hub Network, Rolake Akinkugbe-Filani, tells EMMANUEL OJO how the organisation is empowering women with communication skills to improve their careers

Your team at the SpeakHer Hub Network has scheduled the maiden edition of the SpeakHer conference for October 14, what is the inspiration behind the initiative?

Sometime last year, I think it was November, I attended a women’s conference and one of the speakers, the final speaker at the conference, mentioned the need to collaborate and form partnerships with like-minded people for impact and there was this idea that one cannot do it alone. Before that conference, I had the SpeakHer idea in mind, about how I can help women become better communicators but I didn’t quite know what to do with the idea of coaching, public speaking, and communication for a while. However, I thought I needed to focus on women as the demographic because they might go in as corporate executives and I noticed that women in many industries struggle to express themselves. They have fantastic talent and they have skills that are required for what they do but the ability to speak with confidence, give a powerful presentation, and pitch ideas before investors is an aspect that many women find challenging. So, it wasn’t until that conference held that I figured that there was something I had in mind to collaborate with someone with a good initiative. I then approached her and that person was Ayo Mairo-Ese, who is now a co-founder. So, that was really the birth of the idea and I know Ayo, in her own right, is really passionate about women empowerment in the area of communicating excellently. So, we came together and talked about launching this SpeakHer maiden conference and we named our brand, SpeakHer. When you hear it pronounced, it sounds like ‘speaker’ but it’s actually SpeakHer, referring to the feminine gender and we decided that our slogan will be ‘empowering women with excellence’.

We want women to be fluent communicators because it can open doors of opportunities for them in the area of public speaking and communication and we decided that a flagship way of doing that to impact hundreds of women will be to do an annual conference. So, this year’s theme, which is the maiden edition, will be ‘Find Your Roar’. It’s not just finding your voice, that is, your physical voice. It means finding your authentic message and voice in the philosophical sense. What is your voice? It is the message you want to bring to the world as an entrepreneur, and as a professional woman and how you can leverage that voice to impact your community, your industry, your circle, and your network in a way that will catalyse change.

Is there any reason why it is coming at this time?

Yes, there are several reasons but first of all, the world and industry at large have become strongly aware of diversity, equity, and inclusion across society and so, we see an opportunity to capitalise on the interest, the corporate interest not just in the private sector but the public sector, around women and diversity and the impact that empowering a woman will make, not just in her life but in the society. So, we are capitalising on a moment in time.

The second part of it is that between Ayo and myself, we get a lot of demands and calls and 70 to 80 per cent of them are women asking for assistance, help, and masterclasses. They want to be better communicators. They want to be better entrepreneurs, they want to be better speakers and between the two of us, we can’t be having one-on-one coaching for everyone. So, the idea is to bring everyone together and deliver some high-impact masterclasses, using external facilitators, notable people, and industry people from the media. We have facilitators like Bimbo Oloyede, who is a veteran broadcaster.

What other activities are involved?

Generally, we have judges for a ‘speakathon’ competition and women have already submitted entries and it has been shortlisted. It is going to be a competition and we have judges like Stephanie Busari of CNN (Cable News Network) on that judging panel. So, it will get women to see other women like them, who have put themselves out there, to expose them to world-class training by accomplished coaches and facilitators, and then help to spur that desire and motivation for them to want to improve and to believe that they can deliver and perform. If you recall what I said, this is not just about speaking. Speaking is not just an end in itself; it is a means to achieving something.

Imagine a woman who is an accomplished economist or finance guru, who has a fantastic business idea and wants to win $200m for her business idea. She got her presentation and everything together but she doesn’t have the delivery skills needed to stand up confidently and pitch her business idea in front of some investors. Her brilliance won’t be shown to the world and she won’t have the opportunity to unlock that door that will then enable people to believe in her ideas and aspirations and back her financially.

That is one example of our targeted audience, that is one example of our targeted demographic. A woman’s ability to communicate can make a difference. Think about the woman going into a banking hall and planning to obtain funding from the Bank of Industry. She has this brilliant idea of agriculture and a value chain that will empower women and hundreds of other small-scale farmers. However, can she communicate perfectly? It’s beyond ability, it’s beyond being on the platform. It’s also about helping women. It’s an economic empowerment team and there are corporate people, who are excited by our ideas and want to put the weight of their financial prowess behind our ideas.

Is there a reason why it is limited to women, or is it aimed at closing the gap between both genders?

That is a great question. Between my co-founder and I, we also coach men in our individual time. I coach anybody, either man or woman, but we recognise the gap. There is still a gender inequality gap in society and being able to empower with soft skills has been shown to add a significant multiplier effect to economic development. So, it’s not an exclusion of others but we believe that when the woman is empowered, she will empower her community, she will empower her children. In that community, there are men and women, boys and girls. So, it’s really just a specific focus and we believe that that’s our target demographic for this particular initiative but as I mentioned, myself and my co-founder, as professionals, empower hundreds of men and women in our everyday endeavours. It’s just that we recognise a specific need for women to really up their game.

Nigeria has made progress in key industries. If you look at financial services for instance, you have more women sitting on boards, you have more women emerging in key positions, at senior levels and the executive levels, so, gradually, women are breaking boundaries but what we are saying is that we need to see more changes because many women are still falling off the ladder at mid-level than men in companies and organisations.

What will be the highlights of the ‘speakathon’?

For the speakathon, it is part two of the programmes for that day. In part one, we have four masterclasses. Part two is the ‘speakathon’ in four categories. The first category is called marketplace oracle. These are women who basically want to talk about a critical economic or industry issue, using data to deliver insight that will then spur quality change. Then we have the pitcher for people who want to pitch innovative and interesting products to convince the audience to buy or take their product. Then we have the faith and inspiration angels which involve people who want to talk and inspire us with ideas that can inspire life changes; to talk to us about how divine guidance has made a difference in their lives. Finally, we have the story-teller category and these are the ones who want to reveal the power of storytelling to inspire us, make us laugh and cry. So, these are the four ‘speakathon’ categories. We had entries from over 50 women and we shortlisted three into each of those categories. During the ‘speakathon,’ a panel of five judges will determine winners in each category. They will come up and deliver a talk for about three to five minutes and a winner will be decided in each category and then, the overall winner in the ‘speakathon’ will also be decided. Imagine the energy of having these women on stage and how it’s going to inspire other women as well.

Where will you place communication as a skill required for career growth?

I will place it at number one. It is because if one cannot communicate, how can one be able to pitch their products and services? How can one showcase the work that they do and how can one communicate to the team as a leader to drive the vision and strategy to the stakeholders, board, team members, and customers? So, communication is key and it is a skill that can be acquired; that’s why it is called communication skill and we all can develop that skill through nurturing