102. Tulia Lopes: Speak Up and Lead!

Tulia Lopes believes communication and collaboration are the keys to develop and expand any kind of business, and excel in whatever areas you want to achieve in your life. To support women’s professional growth, next September she will be launching a new venture – Speak Up & Lead Academy. A platform focused on developing Female Global Leaders by fostering and honing their communication and leadership skills. She is also an author, and her book, Leading in High Heels, is a step-by-step guidebook to help women to assess their leadership skills and find the techniques to improve further. Tulia is an award winning speaker at the European level within Toastmasters International and she is frequently invited to speak in several different platforms throughout Europe on topics of communication, leadership, women’s impact and empowerment.

Why we don’t see many female speakers?

Tulia believes that there are three main reasons why we don’t see many female speakers in most of conferences:

* The biggest and most popular conferences are focused in areas where women are not well represented: innovation, technology, IT, etc.

* There is a bias when selecting the speakers for a conference. Additionally, there are fewer women than men listed as speakers or with online presence so event planners can’t remember her names.

* Some female professionals are just not well prepared.

Speak up and lead!

Tulia’s best piece of advice for speaking with confidence is:

* Pay attention to your body language and voice. Women have the handicap that when nervous, their pitch goes high. Instead, a strong deep voice gives authority and transmits confidence.

* Know your audience.

* Shape your message to fit your audience. A great idea or message can have a weak impact if it hasn’t been customized to the actual audience.

Some great female speakers to watch

Kristen Pressner

Jane Frankland

Sheryl Sandberg

Related: Body Language for Winning an Important Meeting

Favorite quotation

“Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.” — Pablo Picasso

Recommended book

Lean In: Women, Work,