Broken Hill’s Shahna Smith has been recognised as a leading entrepreneur after appearing as a panellist at the very first Forbes Australia Women’s Summit held in Sydney.
Shahna’s business, Amplified Beauty, has seen large growth in the last 12 months and the latest milestone was her appearance at the Power of Representation section at the Forbes Summit.
Ms Smith was in esteemed company, with the likes of business titan Christina Holgate also speaking at the event, and model and entrepreneur Miranda Kerr also featuring.
“It was amazing. There was 1700 people in the audience and the atmosphere was electric. Everyone was very empowering,” Ms Smith told the Truth.
“It was very inspiring listening to the other speakers before it was my turn to go up there.”
Ms Smith said she did have some nerves following some of her peers on to the stage, but it was nothing a glass of orange juice couldn’t fix.
“It was quite daunting at first because I knew the other amazing panellists next to me were speaking a little bit differently compared to what I was planning on talking about.
“There was Lisa from the Diversity Council, very science, data driven conversation, the lady next to me was a model and body activist for women of colour, and then there was a lady who spoke about mining too. I was nervous, thinking, is this going to flop? But thankfully I was being clapped during my speech.”
Ms Smith spoke on many different important issues including representing young women in business.
“I was saying that we can tap into the negative things that happen in our life and use them to make us unstoppable.”
She also spoke to her own experience of becoming aware of her Indigenous heritage later in life, and wanted to let people know that it is okay.
“I spoke about becoming more aware of your indigenous culture later in life and how it’s okay if you didn’t grow up traditionally as an Indigenous woman.
“If you want to step into that later like I did, that there’s no shame in that. You can get a little bit of a backlash out there at the moment for different reasons. Block out the noise and go for it, dig deep into your background because that’s part of who you are.
“It doesn’t matter when you look into it, as long as when you’re doing it, it’s for the right reasons.”
As well as giving a thought-provoking talk, Ms Smith also told us she learnt so much from other speakers.
“I really enjoyed the Power of Product. They had Jess Hatzis, the founder of Frank Body up there, they had Sam White [founder and CEO of Freedom Services Group & Stella Insurance] who flew in from London.
“As a woman in that business she [Sam White] was surrounded by men in suits all the time, and she spoke about how she embraced that and used that to stand out.
“She also spoke about the left side of the brain and the right side of the brain and how a lot of, and I say this respectfully, men in business, look at the numbers and that’s the left side of the brain. Whereas she was looking into bringing more empathy and how we can change things and bring that into business as well using the right side of your brain. And that just really stood out to me.
“It was so empowering. I walked away feeling really good.”
Ms Smith says it’s really important to mentor young girls who are looking to get into business.
“It’s definitely important to me. That’s why I previously was going to schools in South Australia to talk about my story and to get these young girls, if they’re not interested in sport, for example, to look into business.
“I find business is one of those things that we don’t necessarily need certification for. It’s built on knowledge in my personal experience, and I find that if more young women knew about that, perhaps they would lean into that more. It is something I’m passionate about, for sure.”
