Equity & Equality. It's time for small business to lead With special guest Cathy Ngo, Founder of Keynoteworthy, Equity & Inclusion Changemaker

Small Biz Matters – #207 Providing the small business community with educational content and advocacy since 2014
with Alexi Boyd, broadcaster, advocate and small business owner.
Date: 11 May 2021

You couldn’t get more topical than this at the moment. Equality, fairness and equity in the workplace. Our country’s leaders have failed so can the small business community become the leaders in this space and embrace a new philosophy around fair and equitable discussions?

The reality is many small businesses don’t even know what their obligations are, let alone how to be equitable, fair and equal when engaging with others. Today’s guest might just be able to help us with this. I found her social media presence to be refreshing at a time when I felt only disappointment and dissolution in the way our country was being run. Her thought provoking posts led me to invite her on Small Biz Matters to help us tackle this important topic.

Cathy is passionate about equity and equality in the speaker space, and was disappointed to find that the traditional speaker agency and bureaus tended to only feature celebrities and professional speakers; the same perspectives but repackaged differently. So she founded Keynoteworthy which aims to see diversity and inclusion on stage, and she joins us today to share her own small business journey and help us to see things differently, or rather, equitably.

• What does it really mean to be to be fair and equitable?
• Why did you decide to become self-employed and start your own business, Keynoteworthy?
• There is a lot of talk about diversity, equity and inclusion. What does it mean? Is it all just corporate-speak?
  • Pronouns, how to understand them and what meaning they hold for individuals?
• Why should small businesses think about diversity, equity and inclusion in their business?
  • Is it a must as part of your duty of care to your staff?
  • What about the speaker’s circuit, and choosing those who speak for your branding?

To find out more go to their website: https://keynoteworthy.com.au/

About our Guest:

Cathy Ngo (pronounced norr) is an entrepreneur, writer, presenter, speaker and who thrives at the intersection of tech, comedy and activism. She’s the founder of Keynoteworthy, a challenger speaker agency and social enterprise focused on bringing diversity and inclusion.

Cathy has a degree in Business, majoring in Human Resources because she didn’t want to be an accountant, lawyer or doctor. Much to her parent's dismay, they still don’t know what she does for a living.

She’s spent more than ten years climbing and playing ‘snakes and ladders’ in Australia’s top listed companies before hitting the ‘bamboo ceiling’ several times (it’s like the glass ceiling but thicker). Entrepreneurship has always been in Cathy’s blood from a young age.

Outside of work, she dabbles in stand-up comedy at random covid-safe bars and restaurants and mainly jokes about being positively discriminated against for being Asian-Australian. She is also an obsessive indoor plant collector and has a hard time trying to keep them alive.

About Keynoteworthy

Keynoteworthy solves the problems that events and conference organisers have in finding and booking speakers that reflect the diversity of gender, sexualities, ethnicity and ultimately, perspectives and ideas that event-goers and sponsors are increasingly looking for.