WRITER Melanie Kell

The inaugural Women with Vision Festival has taken place in Melbourne, inspiring women from right across the ophthalmic community to connect, and helping them find more clarity around their strengths, powers, and potential.

The brainchild of Jacque Katsieris (ProOptics) and Lisa Cappuccio (Eyebenefit), Women with Vision attracted well over 200 to The Timberyard in

Melbourne’s Docklands on a Sunday morning. And even before the gates to the yard were due to open, there was a sense of energy and excitement among those lined up and ready to celebrate.

There was nothing clinical about Women with Vision. And there was no tradeshow. And that was the beauty of it. The festival was all about connection and personal development with MC Bundjalung woman, Mindy Woods – the first Aboriginal woman to be awarded a Good Food Guide Hat – kicking things off by stating that “When women are strong, communities are strong. When women connect, something shifts. And when women gather with intention, transformation quickly follows.” And it did.

Ms Woods kept the show together, reiterating important themes delivered by presenters Clare Desira (Top Five Movement), Cherie Clonan (The Digital Picnic), and Emily Mann (MannPower). Meanwhile, at the back of the room, the not-for-profit organisation, Dangerous Females, printed hundreds of t-shirts and ran a silent auction of industry-donated prizes. A total of AU$7,000 was raised to support victims of domestic violence, along with abundant awareness of this organisation’s contribution to community.

Introducing the first speaker – Clare Desira – Ms Woods encouraged the women in the room to “get outside your comfort zone... Know that you are in a safe space. Ask questions that you’ve held onto. Give advice that maybe you wish you had received in a younger part of your life. Reach out, listen, and connect in a really genuine way because these connections will last long after today finishes up”.

Ms Desira is an award-winning coach and CEO of neuroscience based leadership training organisation, Top Five Movement, and her mission for her interactive session was to give attendees the “chance to actually slow down to go faster”.

She guided attendees on how to reframe negative thoughts and stressors, acknowledging that “when we work in fields that we really care about … it’s not going to matter how much work you do… There’s always going to be someone else to support and someone needing more help.”

Ms Desira explored our brain’s natural negative bias, which can lead us to connect through complaining, and think about how we will be happier when our work or personal circumstances eventually change. Although it’s good to be excited about the future, we also need to make the most of now – and one

way to do this is by training our brains to look beyond the negative bias. She recommended learning to use “circuit breakers” to interrupt negative thoughts that can drain our energy and influence our behaviours. In other words, when preparing for or confronted by a difficult / negative situation, take time to reframe the event with Helpful (as opposed to positive or negative), Encouraging (as opposed to critical) and Productive or

Purposeful thoughts – a practice otherwise known as HEP thinking.

When we learn to use these circuit breakers, Ms Desira said we can “save little pockets of energy of rumination and doubt” and then “hopefully, we can turn up more open to possibility… maybe more ready to listen, more warm and friendly, more relaxed and like ourselves”. Additionally, Ms Desira said the thousands of leaders she has introduced to HEP thinking report elevated motivation, the ability to uplift others, and increased confidence – even beyond work.

MAIN CHARACTER ENERGY

Bringing “main character energy” to Women with Vision, Emily Mann encouraged every woman in the room to rethink their approach to online media. As a branding specialist, she believes a lot of businesses have lost their authenticity and their identity because they’re trying too hard to create and serve up too much online content… “everyone is trying to go viral every five minutes”.

“Main character energy accidentally got interpreted as ‘be everywhere, all the time at full volume’, and it was a lot. Suddenly being visible online started to feel like a full-time acting role and you weren’t just running a business anymore, you were performing one, and that is where the problem starts,” she explained.

Ms Mann believes we’re entering a new era online that she calls “the post-authentic era”.

“It’s an era where performance is losing power, but presence is becoming everything.”

Rather than chasing volumes of followers, businesses should focus on “cultivating highly engaged, loyal audiences by offering a real brand identity and an audience-relevant point of view” because “reach is random; strategy is not”.

She said the brands that are winning aren’t posting every day, but they are producing with intention; which is more sustainable for the business and more manageable for the audience.

Ms Mann’s three social media rules are: 1. Stop chasing relevance through trends. 2. Build a point of view… you do not need everyone to agree with you; you need the right people to recognise you. 3. Choose sustainability over intensity. You don't have to show up everywhere, you just have to show up in a way that you can A) sustain and B) not be embarrassed about.

She said every post should do one of four things: establish authority, reinforce values, deepen your relationship with your audience, or set something up for later.

BUILDING YOUR PERSONAL BRAND

A presentation by The Digital Picnic’s Cherie Clonan shifted the conversation from business branding to personal branding. Ms Clonan’s message was not to be shy about putting your story online because authentic glimpses of your personal life are an excellent way to connect and build loyalty with your customer base.

When people hear the word ‘storytelling’, they often think of sharing and maybe oversharing, however, Ms Clonan prefers to think of it as ‘curation’.

By curating stories of her own childhood of disadvantage and her life today, she has built an incredible customer base for her business. Furthermore, she never needs to use recruiters to find staff – she has people knocking on her door.

“If it doesn't embarrass you, share it… choose what parts of your life you want to share online and hopefully doing that connects, and really starts to build out your audience,” she said. “Storytelling is really what makes you memorable.”

Ms Clonan said that when you hide behind your business brand, “your audience misses out on an ability to really know so much more about your motivations, who you are, what you believe in, and an ability to make them feel something as well”.

She advised the audience to carefully consider their purpose when building a personal social media profile, looking beyond their industry for inspiration.

Emily Mann, Mindy Woods, Lisa Cappuccio (Eyebenefit), Jacque Katsieris, Cherie Clonan, and Clare Desira.

The best place to start is by thinking about “what can’t you stop talking about as much as you try to?”, she said.

“From there, take a photo (or a video).

“What do you want to be known for within your industry? What three beliefs do you hold within industry? And what are some types of content that you feel comfortable leaning into? Is it video? Is it static? Is it photo? Is it carousel? And then the big one, what platform will you commit to after today to showing up to more?

“You need to build something that makes people remember you, otherwise they struggle to remember you… and they’ll just go somewhere else.”

CONNECTION AND COMMUNITY

Women with Vision concluded with a panel discussion comprising practice owners Eliza Whitely and Jane Huntchinson, Jacque Katsieris, Angelina Chee (De Rigo), and ophthalmologists Dr Lana del Porta and Dr Jacqueline Beltz. Finally, Mindy Woods recounted her story of connection and community before summarising the key themes covered across the day, reminding everyone of “the possibilities that can happen for all women when we gather together and share… never forget that you belong, you have responsibilities to yourselves, your families, your country, and to each other”.

Women with Vision was sponsored by Rodenstock with supporting partners De Rigo, Matrix, ProOptics, OKKIYO, Eyebenefit, ProVision, Eyecare Plus, mivision, Optical Dispensers Australia, HOYA, and ZEISS.

The event will return in 2027.