Liezle Barrie, National Sales Manager for Consumables at Intamarket Graphics, hosted and organised the Change 1 Woman (C1W) Cocktails & Conversations event on 17 July, held at KYOCERA Document Solutions South Africa’s Midrand offices. She also shared experiences from her career and personal life, challenging attendees to stop waiting until they feel ready or fully prepared before taking the next step.
Barrie encouraged women in the branding, print and signage industries to embrace reinvention and continue developing throughout their careers. Her talk, centred on ‘growth through reinvention’, focused on the expectations women often face around career success, leadership and personal achievement. She explained that her own journey had not followed the path she originally imagined, but that unexpected changes had created opportunities for growth and reinvention.
Barrie said women are often expected to conform to conflicting standards: to be confident but not intimidating, ambitious but not threatening, and successful while still managing every other responsibility. She described how she initially tried to meet these expectations by becoming a people pleaser and later by tying her sense of self worth to achievement and professional performance.
Barrie also connected her message to the signage industry, pointing out that many women enter the sector without having considered it as a career while at school. She noted that the industry remains male dominated, meaning women often feel they have to prove themselves. However, she encouraged attendees to recognise the range of career opportunities available, from sales and marketing to technical and installation roles.
‘You don’t only have to be a sales rep. You don’t only have to be in marketing. You can be a technician. You can be an installer. You can do anything that those men can do, we can do as well,’ Barrie said.
A key part of Barrie’s presentation that she will also be presenting at the C1W Networking events at the Sign Africa Johannesburg expo, was challenging what she described as myths around leadership and personal development. Barrie also urged women to move away from the pursuit of perfection and instead focus on authenticity. Using the contrast between a swan and a unicorn, she encouraged attendees to stop trying to fit an expected ideal and instead embrace what makes them different.
Barrie concluded by challenging attendees to consider which version of themselves they might still be carrying despite it no longer serving them. She encouraged women to stop waiting for the right time, seek no one’s permission to change and continue becoming the person they want to be.
‘The world needs the version of you that’s brave enough to keep becoming,’ she said.
Book your seat online to listen to Liezle Barrie’s full presentation on 9 September at 14h00 at Gallagher Convention Centre https://www.c1w.co.za/rsvp/
C1W Initiative
Change 1 Woman (C1W) aims to empower women in the branding, print and signage industries. As part of this initiative, Sign Africa would like to spotlight women-focused content like this piece. If you have any trend/business articles related to the signage, branding and printing industries, please email content to: info@c1w.co.za. Follow C1W on Facebook and LinkedIn for more updates.
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