Pamela Klioufis started off knowing what she wanted to do really early on in her career journey.
With a passion for public relations, she did a number of internships in the field following high school, which led her to working in the field of communications at Bridge Climb.
“I very quickly realised that while I loved in-house, my passion really was agency,” says Klioufis, adding that she loves “dynamic, fast-paced, changing environments”.
“So, I went through a number of agency roles, one of them being running my own agency before finding what I feel is my forever home at BCW.”
Klioufis is now the CEO of the global communications agency BCW Australia and Zealand, as well as Chief Client Officer for Asia Pacific.
It’s been a wild journey of ups and downs, she says, especially now that she’s also become a mum.
“I decided to take my motherhood journey a little bit later, and what that meant was that I had a really jam packed career before I even started,” Klioufis says.
“For me, that was incredibly exciting to take a newfound balance and juggle, but at the same time, it was pretty scary.”
It was important to Klioufis to be an incredible mum to her daughter while also not losing everything else that was important to her, such as her career, husband, family and friends.
“We, as women, want to have our own lives and are loving our independence and loving that we can have careers and adventurous lives,” she says, noting that this also means, for women who choose to take on motherhood “a little bit older”, the weight of the world is a lot heavier.
One thing that’s really helped Klioufis to navigate this new lifestyle has been finding her “mom tribe”, as she describes it. This is a group of like-minded women who understand her passion for work and motherhood.
“It has really helped me feel less guilty, feel like I am empowered in my decision and know that I’m doing the right thing not only for me, but also for my daughter.”
Klioufis has also learned the importance of slowing down. When she first went into motherhood, she’d thought everything needed to get done in “a million miles an hour”, including having a well-behaved child and all of her KPIs met at work.
“It was either one of those two things that ended up failing, or my relationships failed,” she says. “And so I realised that I couldn’t do it all.”
Now, Klioufis slows down to manoeuvre past the obstacles in life and has realised things are a lot easier to navigate because of this.
“I feel less pressure to have that intense go, go, go mentality,” she says.
“Something that I’ve really found useful is being accountable to myself, and also to my colleagues, my husband, and my family.”
“By just being clear and framing the situation of what’s going on, there are going to be moments where I’m pulled away from work to go and be a mom. And there are moments where I’m pulled away from being a mom because I need to go and work.”
Klioufis shares more advice on navigating a career and motherhood during her keynote session for Women’s Agenda’s new video app series, The Keynotes.
The Keynotes app shares “Mini Keynote” sessions and insights on leadership, equity, current affairs, climate and so much more. To watch Pamela Klioufis’s keynote as well as other sessions, sign up to the app here.