#250 Peita Diamantidis – Transcript

Episode details

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, industry, speakers, event, present, absolutely, collective, stage, bit, compliments, good, presenter, presentation, diversity, slides, notice, talk, business, voices, sponsors

SPEAKERS

Peita Diamantidis, Fraser Jack

 

Fraser Jack 

Welcome back to the x y advisor podcast. I’m Fraser Jack and today I’m thrilled to be joined by one of my all time favorite people in around the profession. Peter diamond Teddy’s Hello, hello, thank you for having me. You’re very welcome. It’s so cool to chat to you always great to catch up. And of course, you’re stuck in Sydney and lockup and I’m stuck in Queensland. So anyway, we can do it as online meetings. Exactly. Don’t we love virtual? Yep, absolutely. Now, let’s let’s get started you around for those people who don’t know you, which I kind of mentioned this very many. You’re a business owner, financial planner, in the inner city in the City of Sydney was sort of I think it moved towards more independent location independent there, haven’t you?

 

Peita Diamantidis 

We have we went fully virtual last November.

 

Fraser Jack 

Yep. Fantastic. So

 

Peita Diamantidis 

yeah, we sort of you know, this the team or live in Sydney?

 

Fraser Jack 

Yes. Yeah. Fair enough. Fair enough. So you moved down to your, your offices in North Sydney. Exactly. And as I just sort of mentioned, threw something out there before, as we were chatting before we recorded this, that you’re a bit of a zag when, whenever When else zig zag, and this probably reflects back from even if I think about your business, you Everyone else is going oh, we need to we need to segment our client base and pick up the A’s and B’s and get rid of the season DS and all that sort of talk that went on in the year went well, in that case, I’ll zag I’ll go for the season days. I’ve never looked at it that way. But you’re absolutely right. Maybe I’m just abuse. Well, you’re also an actuary. So technically, you’re What do they call it? correlation coefficient or something? Well, I’m just sounding cooler and cooler. I know. I know. I like to. You’re the you we we love you. You’re different. Yeah. Yeah. So sorry for that amazing introduction. I’m sure you’re very proud of it. But tell us about what you what yet where you’re in at the moment in terms of what we’re doing. Yeah. With business. And, and,

 

Peita Diamantidis 

yeah, look, I’m the business and the team had just, you know, neck deep in all of the changes that we’ve got going on right now. And I honestly, we said this in the team meeting the other day, I’ve never been more grateful to be tech savvy. Never in my business have I been more grateful to have a whole lot of systems in place, it doesn’t mean it’s not hard. But if we were trying to do some of this stuff manually, honestly, I might pick up you know, I’m I just got this is too hot. So I’m incredibly grateful that we’re both tech savvy and willing to learn really fast. And so it’s pretty intense. In that sense. There’s, it’s a bit frustrating, because there’s a lot of doing in the business. But you know, right now, it doesn’t feel like there’s a whole lot of growing, you know, because we’re just busy doing so. But I’m really proud of the team that just, you know, head down, let’s get it done. Which is great. But I think they’re looking forward to, you know, a period in the future when we can sit back and get back to the sort of innovative stuff we love doing, you know, and it’s what lights all of us up. So you have really really busy I hate that word, but really, really intense and lots on, but a lot of it inward, which are you know, frustrates me a little bit. I have to be honest.

 

Fraser Jack 

Yeah, yeah. Now, you did mention tech savvy enough sort of always noticed that you always linked in towards solving problems and putting tech as a solution to solve problems. I guess, to me, it’s, it’s kind of an attitude that wasn’t it led leaning in leaning into a problem.

 

Peita Diamantidis 

It is and I think, you know, first identifying them, so we just constantly like we have an issues list or you know, a problems list that we just constantly work on. And we’re constantly adding to it. So we just see it as a perpetual process. And so that’s something that the business now just does, and a teenage DNA. And so I you know, that makes a difference too, because we’ve learned how to prioritize those. So when new things come up, it goes on the list, it gets shuffled around in priority, and then we just knock off the next one. So I have to admit the fee, or the stress of a whole lot of this change, I would say probably is reduced for us because we already had a mechanism that you know, allowed important created output, they saw types of things. Whereas I’m betting there’s a lot of people out there, you know, pulling their hair out, because of just the extra layers of of process and admin and back office. It’s just so frustrating.

 

Fraser Jack 

Yeah, absolutely. The change has been the the true constant, hasn’t it? Exactly. And and you’re absolutely right, some people are coping better than others. And, and, you know, I think just having that flexibility to be able to, you know, make sure that you constantly changing and updating and I like the idea of having an issues list than just solving it and taking it off and sort of helps from the, from the logical brain point of view,

 

Peita Diamantidis 

doesn’t it? And I think it’s like, those of us that have a notepad next to the bed because we you know, we wake up and we think of something, you know, the, the way to help yourself go back to sleep is just to write it down. And so for the business, that’s what we do to when something comes up. We you know, we don’t get frantic about it, we write it down, and we have a way to handle it. So it’s sort of it just bleeds Without any sort of tension or, or focus on it, that’s unnecessary.

 

Fraser Jack 

That’s the resolve thing, isn’t it? The finish what you start, hey, that reminded me there was I someone said, if you’ve got a song stuck in your head, you could actually finish the song and he can get it out of your head. He said, The way to do it barely exists. That’s easily got all the all the gold happening here on the podcast, write that one down, write that down so that you can remember, one of the things that you do a lot in the industry is you speak at events, you talk, and you present. And one of the things that we’ve chatted about in the past is, you know, how do we get more people into that position of being able to, you know, be available for speaking, speaking potential?

 

Peita Diamantidis 

Absolutely. And I think one of the things I’ve noticed, so, I mean, I love to present part of that to my background, you know, I didn’t tap dancing for 20 years. And so that’s that concept of performing, I guess, is something that’s innate to me. But over time, what I’ve noticed is, it’s a bit of an also engineer industry, it’s, it’s a, you know, some people, you know, they might say, gee, that’s so good presented, but they don’t see it as a path, they should necessarily develop, you know, they don’t see it as something that would be great to have more of us doing. And so I actually went off and invested a whole lot of time and money in developing that, you know, and so developing both my presenting skill, the storytelling skills, the designing presentation skills, like, you know, and I continually invest in that as a skill, just like we all invest, training ourselves as advisors, I sort of took the speaking thing that seriously. And so yeah, we’ve sort of really leaned in, and I’ve, I’ve got to say, you know, there’s, there’s not enough of us from the public’s perspective, getting out there and talking to them, and engaging with them and connecting with them. You know, and and the people that do, you know, generally all look alike? Unfortunately, it’s a challenge. You know,

 

Fraser Jack 

this is a really good conversation, we’ll lean into this in a second, because I want to come back to presenting better, we’ll lean into this environment, the concept of that you’re absolutely right, there’s a lot of speakers that look the same. And, you know, from, from a historical point of view, this industry and many other professions, and industries, has been, you know, male pale, stale white dominated out of business owners, you know, the same, you know, that, you know, they’re very much the same. And, and certain things are changing in certain areas, some are faster than others, and some still need some work. So we’ll get, we’ll get into that. But I want to go back to this presenting thing. Because you have some amazing stuff. And you mentioned a few things very quickly, and you skipped over them, and I want to just pull you up on them if that’s okay. Yeah. There is the skill involved in practicing with presenting There is also you mentioned, design presentation, which is actually a branding of your slides and how you speak and all of the branding that goes with it, there is a speaker pack, which you also included in that branding, which essentially promotes you as a speaker, what you do and can talk about. And then there is the then there was the content.

 

Peita Diamantidis 

Yes, absolutely. And it’s really interesting to think so as I started and investing energy in this, you know, we’re all set our standard, often by what we experience, right? So when you’ve been to conferences in the industry, then that pay, that’s the quality of speakers that there’s a variety, like anything of quality. Okay, that is my range. Whereas once I started leaning in learning, going and getting trained by people that are experts, you know, there’s a broader range, and there’s a higher sort of level or quality you can reach to, and at that level, in somebody’s face, for example, somebody slides there a soundtrack. They don’t hold information, you know, in our industry, there’s bullets, and we read the bullets out, and then we go to the next slide. And then there’s a graph, and we explain the graph. And then we go to the next slide, and these are all bullets. Right? I could, I could probably write anybody’s, you know, slides for the industry, particularly, you know, I feel for fund managers, we’re all there to get technical stuff, but it’s the same. Yeah, bullet bullet, bullet graph, bullets, bullets, bullet graph.

 

Fraser Jack 

That’s funny, isn’t it? A bullet boys, because I love the idea of making your point. But a bullet is what you use to shoot something.

 

Peita Diamantidis 

And and let’s just talk about the graphs for a moment, because how many sessions have you sat in? So you’re in a room of people who are all qualified, right? We all understand numbers and finance. And yet the poor presenter has to explain their graph, because it’s that complicated. Now, as far as I’m concerned, if you need to explain it, you shouldn’t use it, right? It’s the wrong tool to communicate, you know, whereas if your slide can be more like a soundtrack, so I don’t know whether if you’ve ever watched a movie or a TV show when they haven’t put the sound on, right, so you’re getting people to all the dramatic,

 

Fraser Jack 

all the drama doesn’t.

 

Peita Diamantidis 

So it just enhances the drama. It It doesn’t actually give script. You know, it doesn’t, you know, it gives you tone. I mean, things like things like Star Wars, you know, when you see presidents do this really well, it’s the it’s not Star Wars, sorry, jaws

 

Fraser Jack 

is the song in my head.

 

Peita Diamantidis 

Now it tells you, something bad’s gonna happen, when really great presenters do this? Well, this, the tone of their slide start to change as the energy or the tone of their presentation changes. So it’s at that level, the slides, you know, can be used rather than information dump, you know, and I’m still learning in this respect, because my instinct is to give lots of value. And so, you know, often we feel like the value is in the slide. And the truth is, the value is in you, and the way you connect and the storytelling you can undertake, and the slides are the soundtrack. Yes. So that’s something that’s a transition over time. And it’s, it is quite different. And in fact, you know, often get comments to that effect, where, you know, I’ll be asked to upgrade you, can you come and speak at our conference? You know, maybe it’s a dealer group? Absolutely. Can we get your slide pack packet? If it’s fine? Sure. Send it. And is this all right? Yep. But there’s no information. I know. I’ll give them the information. I’ll have the landing page with some things on it. You know, it’s all good.

 

Fraser Jack 

How are we supposed to assess the CPD if there’s no learning objectives? It is funny Is it because that’s, that’s led that that whole idea of the CPD is led a lot of the presentations that take place

 

Peita Diamantidis 

it has and I think them the danger of that is that’s all that leads, you know, the thing you measure you get. So if we only measure CPD, and the things within CBD, all of which are good, but that’s all we get. And you know, at an event, I think we can get more you know, I think we can add more than that. And and really get people transformed. I mean, that’s, you know, a great presentation will transform somebody and encourage them to act. Yep, that’s when it rocks.

 

Fraser Jack 

So what I’m getting from this quick chat is the concept around leaning in like, like becoming a presenter or a speaker. And let’s let’s take all that I’m probably not good enough. Let’s tackle this now. I’m probably not good enough to be a presenter codswallop. Anybody that says that I wouldn’t say that to them in their wallet them with a card literally. Lucky, lucky social distancing is in place, I’d say.

 

Peita Diamantidis 

Look, it’s um, it’s really interesting the stories we tell ourselves, because it is all in our minds. So the mindset around speak, I mean, there are people who would prefer to get in a cage and drop into a ocean of great white sharks. I literally would prefer until a couple of

 

Fraser Jack 

weeks. Excellent. Australia. Yeah.

 

Peita Diamantidis 

So you’re happy to do both. But there are people like they actually would say that, yes, just put me in the cage. I don’t want to get up on stage now that is in your mind. You know, so it’s, it’s something we’ve created is this big, dramatic, negative, awful thing. And it doesn’t need to be and and if it’s a fear of not being good enough, or setting a standard of what you expect, then one of what I would say to that is one of the most powerful presentations I’ve ever been to. It was a young woman who was presenting on a particularly traumatic situation in her life. She I would describe her and this is a horrible expression but to create the picture quite mousy, she was turned in her shoulders were down. Her head was down the whole session. She never met our eyes. It was slightly mumbly the guy had to mock her up and turn her up. But we were mesmerized for 45 minutes. Absolutely mesmerized she now that presentation in her way. So I think we probably need to reposition the way we think about presenting we don’t need to all be newsreaders. I think we all sort of have this mental picture of you know structured way to my hands go and you know walk this way and you want it that’s not what people are looking for anymore. We all except you know expect authenticity. You know, and aside so be authentic, authentic and if that means you like me, you know I wear jeans and dorky t shirt and a jacket on stage then that’s me, you know you know what you gain and that’s powerful And to your point about brand when you lean into that it can actually enhance the messaging so I you know, we debated this with my speaker coach Andrew Griffiths and you know what you were on stage just like your slides is part of the soundtrack. It’s all part of the messaging. And you know, I could choose to wear a suit if that was suiting my brand, but it doesn’t. Anybody that knows me knows that doesn’t suit my brand. I am a dork and I do run around a lot on stage and I wear brightly colored boots and I, you know, I’ve got funny logos might be a Star Wars logo who knows on a T shirt that suits me and the minute I stand get up on stage people know they’re going to get something different to what they’ve seen before. That’s powerful. You know, they’re already opening their minds, you know. So, you know, all of that is something that we can all develop without feeling like we’re suited to be a speaker.

 

Fraser Jack 

Yeah, I think I think that authenticity is a really good place to start. I think it’s really around the idea of what, who are you right now, don’t try and be something you’re not if you’re presenting, just be you. Be honorable, be prepared. And this probably comes back, the vulnerability thing is hard. It comes back for there’s nothing I mentioned before, the idea of beyond fear, fear of failure is not necessarily the worst thing in the world, but fear of people judging you. And, you know, that God type is, is what we really fear. We don’t often see that, you know, getting on stage, we fear what people might be thinking about us.

 

Peita Diamantidis 

And what’s interesting about that, I saw this in real life, actually, where there was, this was many years ago, I went to an event where there was one of the guys who was who was training within the sort of group that were hosting the event. And so they’ve got him to present. And he was beyond nervous, he was shaking, right? This was this was truly traumatic for him. But the presenter early gets to the person running event early on in the event and said, Look, he’s going to be presenting later, he hasn’t presented so you know, I just think we should all be supportive, when that’d be great. That whole audience, when that young man presented, were with him, you know, they were willing him up on stage, willing him to do it well, and cheering him at the end, because 99 out of 100 people in that audience feel like him. So that’s the thing. You know, I’m the weirdo on that stage. I love being there. I’m the outlier, you know, just give you a normal. The fact you don’t want to be there is normal, you know. So if you are on stage, and you’re freaking out, just remember, most of that room are right there with you. You know, they’re your people. It’s okay, you’re in a safe place. They they actually don’t judge? You know, I believe it’s the reverse. I believe most people are very supportive of new speakers, you know, I really do think they just go, Oh, I couldn’t do that well done. You know?

 

Fraser Jack 

And what about the What about the negative self talk, self limiting conversation around my messaging not being as important as to other people as what I think it is?

 

Peita Diamantidis 

Yeah. And I Well, you know, it’s, everybody’s well, and I think we’re discovering right now, everybody’s got a different perspective, don’t know, everybody’s got a different take on the world. I think the only thing that is important is that, you know, you developed your concept, or your voice or what you want to have to say, well, you invested time in it, and you turn up how people then react to that is down to them. You know, it truly is. And so I think people can worry about the impact of what they’re going to say or or you know, the reaction. But sometimes when I sit down with them really look at that they actually haven’t really invested the thought into the messaging. Right? And if you if you invest the the thought into the messaging, you’re going to put yourself in your audience’s shoes when you design the presentation. That’s a great promo when you really thought all right, when they come to this room, how do they feel when they see what the topic is? How do they feel? What you know, what are they going to want? How do they so if you actually design the experience based on them, then invariably, it’s going to connect? Right? That that level of empathy is really powerful. So I, you know, I think, invest the energy and time do it well, and honestly, I, there are not many people that react badly. And the ones that do generally are just those people.

 

Fraser Jack 

So I’m just spitballing there, the people that are worried about their ideas might not be appropriate enough for the audience or value valuable enough for the audience? are the ones that are actually putting thought into that current era is the ones that might just get up on a whim and go Yeah, let me tell you what I think might be might be not putting that thought and therefore just more of a telling rather than, you know, affecting real change or something.

 

Peita Diamantidis 

But caring alone puts you a step ahead, actually care what people think puts you leagues ahead of others that are happy just to sort of rock up and look it’s um, you know, the, the extremes of this sort of thing are the, the best man man who’s you know, doing the best man speech wants to be cool, wants to be cash, therefore, spends no time doesn’t invest in energy in the presentation and comes up as off as flippant and tells bad jokes. Or somebody who goes I really want to do the right thing by my maid. I want it to be special. They might be stuttery they might be awkward. There might be shaking, but every person in that room is applauding them and thinks they’re amazing and talks about the best man for years to come, you know, it’s the time and the care. That’s what people reward. You know, it’s, it’s not the coolness. So but it’s it’s hard to get that message through people, the fear of standing up of sticking our head up. And in Australia, I think it’s probably worse than a lot of other cultures, the tall poppy thing is real, we’ve all seen it happen. And so I think we are conditioned to be fearful of sticking our heads up, you know, and the only way, the only way to get over that is to do it over and over again, it’s conditioning, you’ve got to work out that there’s just not really anything that bad that can happen. And there truly isn’t, I mean, I’m lucky my conditioning happened at dancing. So you know, I did all this dancing training, you did the dancing concert in over a year. And you My whole family will get dragged along, I broke fingers broke my nose, my whole outfit fell off in the middle of a number, I’ve fallen off stage I’ve run into, like, I have done all of the things that people as adults might be fearful of aquatic carrying, I did them as a kid, when it’s likely they’re going to have happen. And I survived. So as far as I’m concerned, getting up on stage in front of 1000 people, that’s easy in comparison to one, it’s very powerful. So yeah, I, you know, it’s not that bad, we just need to do it over and over again.

 

Fraser Jack 

And I definitely think you should start including a bit more tap into your presentations to now I’ve done it. Fantastic. Now I know, one of the things that you’re really passionate about when it does come to speaking in events, is the representation. So we sort of touched on a little bit before, let’s get into it. Now, let’s get into the concept of you know, a lot of presentations we’ve been to in the past and events we’ve been to in the past, a lot of male dominated speakers. And I know that certainly one of your passions is to is to help a lot more females come through and put their hand up and then go from there.

 

Peita Diamantidis 

Absolutely. And I think if I’m really honest, I haven’t been as aware of this as I should have been up to this point. You know, so I think when we’re entering a new environment, or, or starting something new, often it’s all about us, you know, and so we’re developing our skills, and we’re getting gigs. And you know, it’s, it’s we’re beating when looking. And I’ve always worked in male dominated environments, investment banking, you know, money trading, and then into financial advice, even a freight railway. So, I actually think there’s a conditioning there for me, where I don’t notice those things, right, I’m just did there, I do my best, as long as I do my best, you know, we roll along. And it’s not until sort of in the last few years, where I’ve sort of stuck, you know, I’m at an event might be I’m sitting side stage, you know, watching somebody else present. And, you know, I’m looking at the lineup of presenters and like, Hold on, wait a minute. This is on like, a real way. I mean, I know I’m a waiter, but I’m, like a real leader on this place, you know, a female redhead, are you serious, I couldn’t stand out more, if I tried and, and I’m starting, I actually feel like, it’s got a little worse, I feel like something through all the virtual events, and then, you know, it’s coming out the other side, I feel like the numbers have got even worse. And I’m starting to see, you know, the landing pages for our industry events. And, and there’s one or two women at a 20 you know, panelists and speakers and, and you know it all? So this sort of stuff you start to notice, right? And any might get a bit disgruntled and yeah, that doesn’t sound like a great idea. And, you know, that sort of stuff, we all matter away to ourselves. And, you know, after some seeing a certain I actually saw somebody present some content that was sort of about gender inclusivity. And and that probably opened my eyes to the way to approach these things. And then I was lucky enough I you know, which is it really plays and I got approached to promote one of our industry events, you know, PD, you talk on this topic, you know, we’d love you to sorry, they didn’t say that. They just say we know, you’re an influencer, we’d love you to share this event with your network. Sure, send me the link, you know, I’m always happy to do that. It’s great. Let’s get more people experiencing more things. Send me the link, I open the link. And it’s all over again, a handful out of a list of say, 20. And, you know, in that moment, I sort of had an opportunity, I could decide to just grumble to myself, or I could push back. And so I just replied and said, Look, thank you for the opportunity. But I can’t in good conscience promote the event because of the lack of diversity. We know and as an industry, we’ve just got to get better at this. And to their credit, they replied and said look, we agree. But there just isn’t many female speakers. Now, I don’t think they realize they were even talking to one.

 

Fraser Jack 

We are the irony. Wow, how do you respond to that? Right. Yeah.

 

Peita Diamantidis 

And, you know, they just found it hard to find What, like I could list you 30? from hard to find, you know, and I think it’s, you know, it’s amazing how the universe does this, but that was the fire for me, I went, alright, I’ve had enough, I don’t want that to be an excuse ever again. So that was my sort of moment of taking the stand was I don’t want any event organizer, to be able to say we couldn’t find women to be speakers, your that was the thing I wanted to solve. Now, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t going to still be a challenge if you solve that problem for them, but I wanted to take away that excuse, you know, and still go, No, you’re always going to be aware that there’s loads of women out there that can present, you’re going to have the details of all the different keynotes they can do. And you’re going to constantly be updated. And there’s going to be ever building a list of fabulous women who, who can present and that’s sort of where the more voices collective was born, and as literally just a month or two ago. right then. And so, you know, that’s just about collecting all these wonderful women together. And in basically providing that as a resource to industry events, you know, here you go, here’s the list, check them out, please. consider them.

 

Fraser Jack 

I love the fact that you link Linton towards that I could list you, and then go, Well, where’s the list and then go wrong, I’m going to create the list and then create the collective, the more voices collective. And I love the idea that you just said to in that in that last grab around, take away your excuse, I’m gonna take away that excuse. Yeah, that’s the accountability buddy thing, then you from being a planet. Right.

 

Peita Diamantidis 

Right. And, and it is an excuse, because people elsewhere are doing this? Well. You know, there’s, there’s major corporates, we’re talking about some of the biggest businesses in the world zoom, you know, Salesforce all sorts of places. And what they do is every major event they hold like their conference, they do a call for speakers or an expression of interest. They tell people what the theme is, they tell them what they’re looking for, and anybody in the world can submit to be a speaker. Now, what that does is, for starters, that opens up the breadth and diversity of the people that can apply, it’s down to the person being aware of it, and submitting, you know, I like those odds, you know, if you if you’re going to just give me the opportunity to pitch alongside everybody else, I mean, that it’s just down to me, you know, it’s down to the quality of what I present or whether it suits your particular theme. So even just that call for speakers, if we could have every industry event doing that, that would be a significant shift in the voices that would be heard.

 

Fraser Jack 

Absolutely. That is a shift. Because I’ve been involved in many events over the 20 odd years, I’ve been doing this. And and look, I have to say that there’s generally there’s, there’s kind of two ways that the the speaker list comes along. One is they have you know, they put together a few people to discuss topics that could be and then they discussed the idea of who might be a good speaker in that topic zone. And the other way is that there’s often when when you have events that sponsors or partners, will call them what you want, but people that are funding it, and for their funding, they want to you know, bring along somebody from their office or they want to bring along somebody that they think is a good person or good fit. And so there is there was two two schools of this one is the the Organising Committee make some decisions, and then some decisions are made by the partners.

 

Peita Diamantidis 

Yeah, and it’s, it’s, um, you know, that’s the compositionally. Traditionally,

 

Fraser Jack 

that’s absolutely

 

Peita Diamantidis 

the construct, right. And I would argue it’s still, most things are still done that way, in our industry and in lots of industries. And when you have these accidental constructs, then it’s very hard to make change of any type. You know, we could decide, look, we only want people under 32% Well, it wouldn’t work because the constructs there, you know, so it doesn’t matter what the angle of diversity is you’re working from these constructs are a major barrier. And so that to me is weird. So the call for speakers is a start, I would argue, you know, having a shortlist at the very least the shortlist for every event should be 5050 or close. You know, just start there. You know, now, what you end up picking after that is down to you. But I think, you know, let’s start further down the line rather than focusing on the end point, which is what speaker you choose. I’d love to make some changes further down the line because I’m pretty sure the end result will work itself out at that point. You know, if we’ve had lots of submissions if the shortlist has some pretty good equity in it, the I reckon the outcome will be pretty close. You know, sometimes it might be 6040 sometimes it’ll be 4060 you know, but I reckon we’ll get close to at least move shifting the doll from You know, the 10 to 15%? We’ve currently got,

 

Fraser Jack 

yeah. Now when we talk about submissions, I’m wondering then if that’s if the case is like, there is some anxiety around the idea of putting yourself out there. There is. So that tends to mean, you get a lot more of, I’m not gonna say male versus female, you get a lot more alpha personalities putting themselves out there. And let’s, let’s be honest, there’s, there seems to be a lot more male, alpha, female alpha personalities. But they’re, that they’re put. So just for that submission point of view. And then you also mentioned the 5050. Now, and we’ll get into the quota word in a second, because that’s interesting. That’s an interesting point as well. But even with these these lists, with a submissions form, we’re probably going to get more males than females, would you say?

 

Peita Diamantidis 

Perhaps, but, you know, and that’s where I think something like the more voices collective can assist, because we can be constantly coaching people into improving that. So if they’re doing it side by side with us, if we’re like, Alright, everybody, this one’s up, it’s open, you’ve got two weeks to submit, working group, do a zoom call, who’s ready? Who’s not? Have you thought about this? So it’s coaching people to step forward? Because, you know, I think asking people to represent their gender, and bash down every wall on their own is just unreasonable. Think it’s not fair, you know, so, you know, some of us may be happy to do that, or even not really notice we’re doing it. But if we want to truly make change, it can’t be one. You know, it’s got to be many. So the way to do that is to build a group or a community around them, that empowers them to go, yeah, I’m gonna go for it, you know, and also helps them assess when they don’t get, you know, when they they don’t make the shortlist or, or don’t get the gig, well then talks about, well, you know, what can we do different next time. And so it’s that supportive environment that will then encourage them to keep on going.

 

Fraser Jack 

Yep. Brilliant. I love the collective conversation. Now, let’s talk about so then you get the submissions, you get your shortlist, and then you get, you know, after that whatever happens happens, because at the end of the day, you still need to put, you know, choose speakers based on the whatever work you absolutely. What about what about the concept of sponsors, putting forward speakers like as in, you know, like, they’re the sponsors of events? How do we then talk or work? Or how do you plan on working and talking with sponsors around that around that? Yeah,

 

Peita Diamantidis 

there’s a few layers to this, isn’t there? Um, look, some sponsors are really good at this. You know, there’s, they’ve got a team of people who look at it really carefully. Consider what’s a great message they pick, somebody will train they like they really lean in. I hesitate to say, that’s not actually the majority, though. I, you know, I’ve been in rooms when people have been talking about, and the sponsors themselves have been talking about who they’re going to put forward. And it’s also ns are supposed to do it, what? This, we need to expect more from this, right? So for starters, let’s lift the bar on the quality of people who present in our industry, let’s lift the bar of what we expect. And then, you know, as a sponsor, then these are big businesses, you know, these aren’t small business, this is some big brands in our industry, or in our country really, then, you know, I would think that gender diversity would be a real and present thing within their business. You know, I mean, I’m betting it is I’m betting there’s a whole lot of stuff going on, internally, and they have a whole lot of movements internally to focus on that. Bring those people into the room, when you’re picking speakers, when you’re talking about events, they just need to fold those people in, because they’ll bring insight, you know. And, you know, sponsors need to demand more of events and events need to demand more responses in order for you to have this change and change for a lot of reasons. Like I say, not just agenda for quality. You know, I mean, I really, I’m really empathetic for the poor bdms who get thrown into events, some of them are thrown in the day before because somebody else dropped out. They’re given a slide slide deck, they may have seen once, and they’re also bullets in it right. And they’re expected to present in front of what can only be said is a somewhat heckling crowd. I was talking to another speaker who’s begging sort of outside the industry, you know, there really are a professional speaker, they get paid a lot per presentation. And his view is that financial advisors are the highest quotient of hecklers in any industry he’s been is ever presented that so these poor brilliant, like we’re just feeding them to the wolves, right? As a brand, you know, whether you’re an insurer or a platform or whatever you are, I think you should give your your brand and your team the best opportunity to shine in front of advisors. Don’t just throw them out there like it’s and also when you’re paying a fortune for them to be there probably. You know, it’s I have to admit, it’s a bit of a mystery to me that way that that they approach that sort of thing. And so yeah, I think we just need to ask for more. Now I would love. I don’t think this would happen. But I would love anytime a sponsor puts forward somebody to present they just always put to male and female just start with that just for now, you know, let’s just say the change happens. So just put two instead of the event event organizer, here’s the profile, here’s a sample of them speaking. Here’s the to you let us know which one you’d like. And so the event manager can then go, alright, how are we looking? What’s the vibe, what’s their style? What’s the day, and they can design the event? choosing which one suits? That would be fantastic.

 

Fraser Jack 

Yeah, absolutely couldn’t agree more. Now, one of the things that we’ve talked about, with regards to having or getting a Decker set in here, having the competence around the the concept, and the collective is a great term. One of the things that came up in a presentation that you did recently was the the idea around boys club, around that support network. And the support network that, that I just wanted to lend to this part of the conversation with regards to the boys club. What, you know, there’s, we had these thoughts, we’ve had these conversations, what are your thoughts on how we can sort of move past this?

 

Peita Diamantidis 

Yeah, it’s like, it’s, this is one of those things that’s really hard to talk about, because the people in it don’t know they’re in it. It’s one of those things you notice, I noticed when you’re outside the club, whatever the club is, and I would say in our industry, too, I see a bit of a cool kids clubs. So and I’d argue I’m probably in that club, in that there’s a group of us that all connect across the industry, you know, and we support each other, and we’re all well connected. You know, it’s sort of the cool kids. And if you’re not in that club, it’s much harder to break through. Right. And it’s an example of that, and the and the boys club thing, that it’s not the people in it, no, it’s there, it’s just abundantly clear to those that aren’t in it, that you got to be in it to make progress. So it’s, it’s really hard to enunciate what that would look like from the inside, of course, because I don’t know. But it’s certainly a feeling when you go to an event. Let’s say it’s fund manager update, we’ve all been to those rotten oak barrel horror at a large, maybe one of the rooms at the Hilton or something, and we’ll all turn up. Next time you go to one of those, which I know might be a little way off, just sit and look around, really look around at the people in that room. And if you cheeky count the females, if you hit over 10, I’ll be stunned in a room of 1000s. And think about how that can represent itself in a dynamic not because you’re excluding somebody, but because the me minority nature of that excludes. And then the behaviors, or interactions or social interactions, you know, golf is an example say, of how events are designed that encourage that sort of club or dynamic, because that’s what all the people in that room or most would really love. You know, it’s actually reinforcing that dynamic. So it’s really hard, because I don’t think any of that is intentional. But it’s real to the people that are outside peering in 100%.

 

Fraser Jack 

So this is this is the dynamic to me is, and I’ve used the word boys club, but it’s it’s about minority versus majority, right? It’s about if you walk into safety in numbers from a pure, pure raw emotion point of view, forget about the technical detail. You walk into a situation and you are the minority, you automatically feel a level of steps up, and you feel you feel excluded. And so and On the contrary, if you’re feeling really comfortable in a room, then it’s about noticing and taking that that mindfulness moment to step back and go if I’m feeling really comfortable with all these people, because I know that I’ve met you years ago, and we’ve you know, we’ve, we’ve been nice to each other ever since. So we like each other. Excellent. We’re in a room, we’re having a good time, but who is in the room doesn’t isn’t part of that click and time trivia for therefore there is definitely some dynamic in the room, just by the nature of the fact that there’s more than some people where somebody may be feeling excluded.

 

Peita Diamantidis 

100% and, you know, I think if we’re all honest, I’m bet there’s people listening right now. And I’ve you know, in the past sort this myself is but why is that my problem? You know, I mean, that’s, that’s being honest, you know, why? Why is that my problem? I’m good, uncomfortable, you know, and they just need to be more confident or they just need to walk up to people. And like, okay, they could, but imagine having to do that at every single event or interaction you ever have. You have to put yourself out there constantly to try to be included. Like it’s relentless, you know, so, I get that it’s easy for us to sit in our comfort. I truly get it. But I think we’re better than that. I think we’re better than that. And I think as an industry, if we could get this right, we will be leading the charge beyond all of the other professions, all of them. If we get this right, then, you know, an inclusive industry is so attractive to new recruits, you know, it is so attractive to them. And, and to be frank, we’re gonna have a recruitment problem going forward. We’re not getting enough, you know, young graduates wanting to come into the industry to fill the hole that’s, that’s occurred, you know, we are gonna need to make ourselves really attracted to recruits. And this is one way to do it, you know, diversity, and of course, I’m talking broader than gender, they’re all of the aspects of diversity, you know, First Nations people disability, age, LGBTQ plus all of them, if we can get that right, they’ll be throwing themselves at us. Because they’ll feel like we represent them. Yeah, that’ll be included.

 

Fraser Jack 

Yeah. And of course, we kind of just talk about male, female without talking about other types of diversity. You know, I think I mentioned mentioned the words in the past the male pale and stale club, when it comes to, you know, a lot of boards tend to get, get that get that title, the older, you know, the blokes, they’re a bit older. And they’re all the same skin color, you know, like, it’s, it’s that it’s interesting. So I also want to go back to that point that we were just talking about the idea of understanding or noticing it right to that is the first I think the first step is just noticing it right. If we can do any better, you realize that it exists. Yeah. We talked about from the point of view that we’re inside the club, right? We’re, we’re inside the click right. But what about if you’re outside the club? Because I think there’s some, there is some opportunity here to, you know, talk about how, if you walk into a room and you’re outside the club, what can you visit? You know, I’m opening up physically, what can you mentally do inside your own reframing? To think this is, I’m not outside of the club, I’m inside of a room or on one side of the collective that you might use the word before I’m inside of the community. I’m in my may may be outside of the clip, but I’m inside of something that I can I can then use as a as an olive branch to then move towards being included.

 

Peita Diamantidis 

Yes. So look, this is, is a lot of things. And there’s things that I’ve developed over time. Some of it can be ferreting out allies before you go, so if you know there’s an event on, then often they’ll be an attendee list, or there’ll be some sort of like, who’s going is to really think about the people that you even if you don’t know, you know, somebody they know, like, that’s all you need, you know, it’s just one degree of separation. And sort of really be ready for that and just go and look out for those people. Like, seek out an ally, you know, and chat to them. So that’s one thing you can do, which, you know, the people that really are introverts, lets them do some prep beforehand, that can be a good thing. So if you can prep yourself, have a bit of a plan of attack, I’m going to seek those people out. Because that lets you actually say to somebody, Hey, have you seen so and so RGV St. Peter, I really wanted to connect with them. So it gives you a bit of a mission when you walk into, because there’s nothing worse. And what let’s talk about this, this isn’t just industry, this is social life, there is nothing worse than being the lone loser in the corner, because that’s what it feels like, right? When you don’t know anybody. And you’re standing there. And it’s really awkward. I mean, luckily, we now have phones, so we can pretend to be looking at a phone. But that’s not why we’re there. Right, we’re there to connect and interact. So having a mission, go and be looking for some people that you want to connect with, or even somebody you want to introduce yourself to. If you have a mission, and then you complete that mission, you could view you know what my work here is done, I’ve done something I’ve interacted with some people, I’ve had a great conversation, I don’t need to stay here I’ve actually got something out of events. So that’s one thing you can do is sort of really prep yourself. On the flip side, I think a lot more of us could put our hands up to be as willing to be allies at that type of event. Now I would personally be super happy to have anybody approached me in event as a way to interject themselves and meet more people. You know, I’m a redhead. I’m female, you’re not gonna miss me. Please come in, introduce yourself. And I’m happy to introduce you to the people that I’m with.

 

Fraser Jack 

Yeah, that’s a really good tip actually find Peter and event. So that’s one really what’s really one cool way just to find a person that you can connect with an event. But I also think there might be another one where you find a topic or a commonality. So somebody that’s in the same license or somebody that’s in the same or somebody that you think does a certain common thing then you do a member of a community member of x y member of bla bla bla a member of something or other else that you can find in habit and have that I guess, in your armory when you’re walking into me

 

Peita Diamantidis 

looking there’s another thing that like I’ve never really actually shared this. It’s more a thing that a really good friend of mine does. That I didn’t realize she did. intentionally it’s just always been in her nature, I’ve got a good friend of mine, Patrice. She’s basically the life of every party she’s ever been to. And we’ve got may have gone up to a few shenanigans over the years but but what she does is she verbalizes the compliments in her head is the way she describes it so often when you’re in a crowd like that, and somebody walked past I do call boots, right? So in your head, there’s this sort of dialogue going on all the time as you watch things, and you see things and you interact with people or you think that was a great session or you think you know, or I loved your question like this, these internal dialogue, pick the compliments and go and actually give them I awesome for the universe. You know, we love karma. Compliment somebody for doing great work or, or for having a great session or for asking a great question. Or compliment them on the funky boots or the Ruby t shirt or the fact that to Star Wars pain, or whatever it is. verbalize that, that is the ultimate you will connect so quickly with a person by doing that, it starts a conversation and it just sends out good Juju, you know, and and it’s it’s so powerful. I’ve never seen Patrice knock connect with 100 people within minutes of arriving anywhere, and it doesn’t matter who they are, or whether she knows them or not. And that’s how she does it. It’s not dissin genuine, she doesn’t throw away these things. She just picks the ones that are going through her brain, and she verbalizes them, which is really powerful.

 

Fraser Jack 

That is incredibly that is such a great tip. I I’ve seen the thing on bullying where you know, they had to do the same way they had somebody on stage. And you know, the bullying and the person that was being bullied just through lots of compliments back and the bully couldn’t come up with any more doubt, you know, put like, completely disarmed the bully. Yeah. And and that’s really interesting, because I think one of the things I love about that is it’s it’s not just about you, like if I walked up to you and gave you a compliment. It’s not just you that goes are that thank you for that. It’s the people listening to that, that also go, that was really nice. That was a moment and then all sudden, yeah, I think that’s a really great tip to throw some compliments around.

 

Peita Diamantidis 

Absolutely. And I think we’d all agree that there is a general level of snoc in our industry. Look, we’re all a bit frustrated. And and we’re irritated by external things going on. And well I you know, and so we all get a bit wishy and wit turns into snark and negativity, you know, so if we can start breaking through and of course, negativity and snark is another barrier that stops people crossing a line. It’s, it’s I mean, it’s the ultimate shield. You know, if you’re in a group that are firing off some really snarky comments, and we all think we’re being smart, and we clever, it’s actually quite repelling, you know, and it’s not inclusive at all. And so if we can sort of lift it a little beyond that, and it be more positivity and engaging and, and really, you know, complimenting people and people go Oh, but, you know, we tell people they’re good. I’m like, well, we don’t know we don’t we just don’t, I don’t I know I don’t it’s just when once Patrice and pointed this out, I’ve started to consciously do it. I’ve done it to strangers in the street in our saw somebody the other day, I’ve got purple streaks in my hair, right. And she had purple in a different way. And I thought that’s really cool. And like up. So as she walked past it, I went, I really love your purple streaks. They’re really cool. And like she got four feet taller. You know, so we should be doing more of that. You know, it makes us better people.

 

Fraser Jack 

Absolutely. I couldn’t agree. And just that and like the other people that hear their conversation also grow from it, too. I absolutely love walking down the street with with somebody while ago and and she complimented the person the stranger walking the other way on her outfit. And it was just like that that same thing. I saw the exact same thing happen. It was like a compliment thrown out to a stranger for No, for no reason. And it was just and everybody felt good about I felt good at that I was I wasn’t even in the conversation. But I felt good or bad. Yes, so true. And so simple. Yeah. Fantastic. Now, now, Peter, obviously, one of the big takeaways from this conversation to me is the concept of sitting back and noticing. So from the from the speakers, from speakers on presentations to, to rooms, and you know, having those networking events and really just taking that moment to notice stuff. And then obviously once you notice it, then you can make a decision on what you want to do about it. And if you want to stand up and make a stand, whether you want to, you know, do something quietly or do nothing, I guess is the other decision. But look, tell us what your what you’ve done about the concept of what this club is into the more of the collective, the more voices collective. Tell us about what you’ve done the

 

Peita Diamantidis 

Yes. So this sort of started, I will admit from a financial service perspective, but as I started talking to people, it became clear it’s really across all industries. This is a similar issue. And so the collective starts with industry groups like collecting women together that either want to speak do speak are professional speakers, you know any of those things and collecting them together. Creating List of people in that industry that, you know, what their keynotes are, what they love to talk on a bit of a profile, just collecting that together. And then also collecting a list of industry events. All right, in your industry list all the events, you know, if we took a moment, most of us could come up with a whole list of them. And we send one list to the other. So every industry rent, gets a list of speakers, they’ve got all the info. And so we take away the excuse instantly, and probably prompt a conversation, which I think is really valuable. You know, so I’d love to just have those conversations with people. Thanks, I got that list. Can you talk to me about why you like, fabulous, you know, that’s the conversation. So that’s at the industry level. And then sort of a broader across the collective is, you know, let’s collect a list of speakers, professional female speakers, you know, people that really want to lean in to this as a job as a role, that can speak across stages and across industries, and sort of bring them together so that they can cross promote each other. So that because we all go for gigs that either don’t suit us, or you know, we don’t want to we can’t, because the timing, then why not tap somebody, you know, within the collective, and I think this is perfect for you, you know, you should go for it, or conversely, hey, event organizers, I know, you wanted me, I’m busy, but this person, perfect. You know, so that sort of cross promotion, it’s creating our own social capital, it’s creating, you know, our own network of people that can just encourage and support each other. So that was the start of it was just that those lists, to be honest, within each industry. But as I started to socialize the concept, it was then about building basically building more speakers to be on the list, you know, encouraging more women to want to speak, giving them master classes, you know, some boot camps, even some retreats that really helped them a get over the fear, be hone their message, and say, Get gigs, and so that we get a cohort of hundreds of women in each industry, that are, well, you know, have really well honed their craft to be great presenters. So, you know, that sort of that sort of second layer is bringing more through. And then, you know, the other part of the collective will be just demanding more of event organizers, and sponsors, and, you know, just asking, saying, look, you can do better, you know, let’s do better, let’s, let’s enhance the diversity in all of this. And, and, you know, really push the push the envelope of, you know, who you could consider. And even I mean, you know, we’re doing this for, you know, women in any industry and female speakers, but anybody in any industry of any diverse group can do this. The next gen plan is both of us work as speakers on in their sort of virtual conference they did through was it three days? For 24 hours, like crazy stuff, right, man? But yeah, right. But what I loved is that, I mean, aside from people like you and I, that sort of have presented a lot, the event was actually specifically for advisors, internationally, who had not spoken before. And they put them through a program. And this was actually like, their dance concert, this was their end result where they got to present their 10 minutes at a TED talk. Why are we doing more of that, you know, broadly, you know, let’s develop this skill, because if we can present well in our industry, then the way we can present to the public will be enhanced. There are so few if you think about the list of people that are professional speakers around finance and money in our country, it’s a short list, a really short list, it shouldn’t, it shouldn’t be it should be a really long list with lots of different choices all have different looks and fields installs and impact and, and content. So, you know, we need to be encouraging this skill generally, for people, not just you know, my, my agenda might be one thing, but I think it’s got to go broader than that.

 

Fraser Jack 

We need more speakers. Now, one of the things we sort of I mentioned, where I’d bring up earlier was the idea of quota. And, you know, I know, I know, you will lean in towards this question, talk to me about the idea of what if somebody’s saying Yeah, but if you know, if we just quota has been on the conversation for lots of different things from sports teams through to you know, and now let’s lean into the concept. What are your thoughts on the idea of course, yeah,

 

Peita Diamantidis 

look, young Peter, in investment banking. If you’d asked me this question, then I’m like, they’re disgusting. You know, why? Why would I want to be part of a quota? I want to be chosen on merit. You know, I’m good enough. I think I believe I’m good enough. You know, I want to be chosen on merit. And look young Peter, that’s fine. But all the Peter knows that’s not how the world works. Nothing is chosen on merit either. And I don’t mean that cynically, I just mean that none of us even when we hire, it’s not like we interview all 20 million Australians and make sure we get the cross section and then pick the single person that best matches. That’s not how it works. So, so and that’s the case with everything. So, merit is lovely in theory, but it’s not how it works in the real world. So the thing about a quota is it just forces you to broaden your list? It just forces you to broaden the shortlist. And, you know, broadening the shortlist is a great place to start. And as for how it feels, you know, I, like I said, Young Peter will, I don’t want the role in you know, if this is part of a choir forget. If somebody approached me now, today, somebody calls me they’ve listened the podcast, they call me and say, Look, we heard what you we heard what you were saying. And we’ve decided to invite a whole lot more female speakers into our event, we’d like you to present and it’s because you’re female, then I would say, great, I’m gonna nail it. Yeah, all I’ve given me is the opportunity. You know, I’ve got a turn up and deliver, you know, so to me delivering is the true and real way that you’ve got to step forward, the opportunity is quite a small thing in in, you know, the full spectrum of that. So I wouldn’t take that as offensive or my pride wouldn’t be heard at all. If somebody said I was only there for a quarter because I’m going to knock their socks off. Yeah, yeah. So that’s sort of my, my approach, which I know, probably people will probably get brought a guy Peter like, but I think that’s what we need to have, we need to see the opportunity for, for what it is and take it.

 

Fraser Jack 

Yeah. And I think, I think in a way, you kind of also need to give kudos for the fact that it is noticed, right, the first element, the first step is to notice that I have taken a decision to implement a quarter then of course, that means that they’ve noticed that and they decided to do something about it. They might not be doing, you know, everything. There’s also two sides of the coin. But I think we’ve also got to get past that, that fact that you know, as humans, we’re inherently lazy, we just tend to go for the path of least resistance. That was easy. I’m just gonna choose somebody who I’m not threatened by who’s a bit like me. So before I know them, or it’s natural, it’s perfectly natural. Yep. So I think the idea of forcing people to think outside their comfort zone is is really is really,

 

Peita Diamantidis 

really is. And I think, um, you know, when it comes to a quarter or marriage, you know, what we’re really saying there is I’m too prideful to take that opportunity. Yeah, we’ve got to get over it. Pride is damaging. It’s it’s not helpful. You know, so if it if the opportunity presents itself, take it and then run the living hell out of it. Yeah. And make them glad they did it. Like, oh, really glad we had that quarter.

 

 

That’s awesome.

 

Fraser Jack 

Now, just kind of back to the collective. You mentioned, it’s, it’s mainly for, you know, females don’t want to come through and and you’re rolling around and throwing your arms around them and saying, Yes, let’s do this, other minority groups as well.

 

Peita Diamantidis 

Over time, so so I think we’ll start in a place just from a messaging perspective of attracting people. We’ll start with women in certainly financial advice and services, and then broader industries. But over time, I 100% expect will broaden it to more voices, more First Nations people voices, more disability voices, because what’s, you know, what’s, what’s really interesting about this stuff is we talk about a minority and in a room in financial advice, I am a minority, but statistically in the country, I’m not. Right. So there’s actual minorities, who truly a small percent of the rest of us, and their voices absolutely don’t get heard. So yeah, I fully expect that the more voices collective will broaden. But I think what we’ll do is get the structure and the value we can add, right? For women, and that’ll mean that it can be applied really quickly to the other sort of diverse, you know, diversity groups that really need to get more exposure and help.

 

Fraser Jack 

Absolutely well done. And, you know, thank you for that. So, obviously, as a, as a bloke, I’m excluded from the collective I’m only I’m only teasing you, how can how can I like everybody that’s not necessarily in the collective still help out.

 

Peita Diamantidis 

So certainly, you can be a friend of the collective so you know, reach out on LinkedIn and just say, hey, I’d love and what that will mean, you know, it’s as simple as you’ll hear about new speakers we have on the least you’ll hear about where they’re presenting, you’ll hear, you know, that sort of thing, so you can absolutely be a friend of the collective. The second thing I’d ask of every mile out there is the next virtual mental physical event you attend. Look at the panel, look at the speakers. And if it looks pretty shifted to one way, just comment on it to the organizers. You don’t have to be aggressive. You don’t, you don’t have to sort of challenge them. I demand you fix this, we’re not asking you to sort of, you know, stormed the stage, you just comment. And you know, when people get enough of those comments, that’s when they change their mind.

 

Fraser Jack 

Yeah, just notice it, notice it. I just noticed that there’s no such and such. And not just, as you mentioned before, it actually really is not just about the, you know, this speakers at conferences, it’s about some of the messaging that comes out online. It’s about DME, who we got on this, you know, there’s landing pages website, there’s Yeah. Is there a Is there a diverse mix of different humans around?

 

Peita Diamantidis 

Absolutely. And the thing about diversity, you know, is innovation comes at a diversity. And, you know, if somebody ever goes, goes and does a study back through our industry and the fact that To be frank, we’ve probably lagged in that sense in innovation, you know, we’re behind the times, you know, they may find a theme there, that’s about the lack of diverse voices, because challenge, you know, different voices, who challenge the thinking, who will look at things a different way, or how you grow and develop, that’s just how it works. Whereas when you’ve got the same type, or the same life experience, all together in a room, it’s very hard to innovate. You know, there’s no to and fro, there’s no dynamic or challenge or debate or engagement, we will not agree, you know? So, you know, I think, you know, these can, this sort of approach of really focusing on diversity of thought, I think will make a huge difference in the years to come in our industry and in other industries.

 

Fraser Jack 

Absolutely. Couldn’t agree. Now, Peter, one of the things I’ve always loved about chatting with you is the fact that we don’t just have bland conversations, we have challenged thinking involved, and there’s always different perspectives and go, I didn’t think of it that way. That’s a great way of thinking of it. And then that and then we both grow from those conversations. So thank you for all of those conversations. Always a pleasure. How can people get hold of you or get hold of find out more about the collective?

 

Peita Diamantidis 

If just for now, I’d reach out on LinkedIn, Peter diamond titas, I am the only one. That and if the photo is a you know, a shorted redhead, then that’s me. And please reach out. And I can add you into it. Look, it’s so new, this concept is literally Am I too old, it currently is is building developing, but if you’d love to hear it, hear more. And if you’re an event organizer want to hear more, and we want to, we don’t want this to be them and us we want to, you know, draw people in and hear our views. And I’m actually going to start reaching out to event organizers in the industry to understand their pains. Because if there’s something we can assist with, in the collective, then you know, that’s more likely to get some of my members onto onto stages. So I’m all for that. And I should actually, you know, full disclosure, we’re all about disclosure in this industry. Full disclosure, I want to get on more stages to so this is an all just warm and fuzzy and me doing this for my sisters, right? This is this is some self serving behavior here because I also want to get on more stages too, but I figure if more of us can then I’ll see more geeks too. So you know, you know, rising tides you know, raises all boats. I think that’s what I’m that’s what I’m focusing on him. Absolutely.

 

Fraser Jack 

We need to get those tap shoes out a bit more often. Thanks so much for coming on. We love what you’re doing really supportive and I hope other people are jumping on the bandwagon and get behind it as well. Love the concept of noticing these things. You’ve noticed that you’ve done something about it and I really appreciate you coming and sharing.

 

Peita Diamantidis 

Thank you and let’s all verbalize those compliments, folks.