Just over two years ago I ventured into Jo Burston’s office to talk to the founder of multiple businesses about women’s entrepreneurship.
It was then that she gave me a little inside scoop on her next big plan — a new movement aiming to inspire 1 million female entrepreneurs by 2020 called Inspiring Rare Birds.
Back then Burston showed me her “Rare Birds room”, a small office featuring printed photographs of leading female entrepreneurs that her team were busy interviewing for the launch of their first book, Australia’s 50 Influential Women Entrepreneurs. She also shared with me the inspiration behind the new movement — the fact that she’d walked into a classroom at her old school asking what an entrepreneur looks like, only to hear students struggle to name a woman (or an Australian).
A lot’s changed in two years. Rare Birds has become a major brand associated with female entrepreneurship in Australia and now all over the world. It has 30,000 members in its community (78% in Australia and New Zealand) and has established an online mentoring program, an ambassador program, published a second book, #IFSHECANICAN, and proved to the country that female startup speakers can actually be found — by running the inaugural Rare Birds conference in June featuring 40 women amongst its 51 speakers. Burston’s been featured in countless media articles and named an Oceania ambassador for the international UN Women’s Entrepreneur Day.
Catching up with Burston over the phone this week, I asked how it’s all grown so quickly “It’s been the right messaging, at the right time, with the right tools under the bonnet,” she says.
This month, Burston’s launched a new book Brilliant BusinessKids, alongside a new blending learning environment for entrepreneurs called Phronesis Academy, with its first program startup.business being trialed in schools in NSW and Victoria. The latest venture has been co-founded with Dr Richard Seymour from the University of Sydney Business School, who Burston says has taught over 20,000 entrepreneurs and mentors.
“The mindset for this was why should entrepreneurship be hard to access? If you have access to a phone or a computer, why should it cost you $20,000 to have to get a diploma in business that somehow makes you an entrepreneur?”
Initially focusing on Year 9 students, the six-module program deliverers both classroom and e-learning based education, before asking students to go out into the real world and connect with business owners and develop a business plan. Burston adds it aims to show how business is merely a vehicle. “It’s the passion and the skill and that technical ability that you have in other areas that really enables you to develop a business,” she says. “Whether you’re good at biology, or science, or maths, they’re the skills. The business is the vehicle.”
Priced at $96 per module, and $485 for the entire course for students pursuing it outside of curriculum, with bulk pricing for schools, Burston sees it as an opportunity to show the world that this generation doesn’t see gender, culture or age as barriers to participation.
So from inspiring female entrepreneurs to equipping kids in schools with the skills they need to start business, how has Burston been so productive these last couple of years?
Speaking with the serial entrepreneur, there’s one thing that stands out: She’s clear and consistent about her own personal vision and mission, as well as what Rare Birds stands for. She’s still working through the same fundamental plan she outlined to me two years ago. “It’s really about my level of impatience with everything,” says Burston. “We knew from day one that we would do the full circle and come back to the experience I had when I went into my old school. The three books we’ve published were planned from day one, we’ve rolled them out one at a time. The vision has always been there.”
But sticking to the vision is one thing, what else drives its execution? Burston says it comes down to three elements.
1. Strategy. “I’m big on strategy. I think about strategy every day,” she says
2. Team and Culture. Burston puts significant emphasis on the team she says has the capabilities and talent to execute the above strategy. They’re aligned with the business and its values and have a high level of respect for each other. From there, she says culture is vital: “Culture eats everything else for breakfast.”
3. Engagement. Burston says “authentic and inclusive” engagement has been key to growth. “We never said it’s [Rare Birds] only for women, or only for entrepreneurs, we really tried to melt the silos of academia, entrepreneurship, government and business together.
I also ask how Burston’s managed to keep Rare Birds top of mind in the media, with the group’s key launches receiving excellent coverage across the mainstream and business press.
“I think we tell a good story, a story that’s good for Australia,” she says. “And it’s not about me. I feel I speak for a huge community, I have a voice that’s important for this demographic. From there, we’ve been able to give so many women exposure and opportunities through our publication. I love the fact that we can be that vehicle and that voice and create that exposure.”
Burston says there’s a lot to still be done, but that she’ll know she’s making significant progress when she meets a little girl who says she wants to be an entrepreneur.
