🎉 Welcome to episode 17 of The Upgrading Women Newsletter 

I’m your editor, Rebecca Leppard, a feminist and communications nerd who has way too many business ideas and actually did some of them: from selling homemade almond milk to running a Montessori-inspired play group.

And because of that I have empathy and admiration for women who hustle. I’m so happy that entrepreneurship has become so popular that there’s no more shame in selling cupcakes as a side business to your 9 to 5 job.

I used to resell synthetic eyelashes while maintaining my cushy corner-office job and people were confused about that. “Your six-figure salary is not enough, Rebecca?”

No, true entrepreneurship is rarely about the money. It’s mainly about: solving problems and supporting the ecosystem.

That’s why I am shamelessly plugging my new business, which is still in beta mode: Girl Brand, and I’m inviting you, my inner circle, to join as testers next Thursday, 5 October at 9am to 11am British Summer Time, GRATIS!

It’s a two-hour immersive co-working session 🤼‍♀️
💜 You’ll learn empathy mapping and design principles
💜 You’ll decide your brand voice, look and content pillars
💜 You’ll walk away with weeks’ worth of your content sorted ✅

Just reply to this and I’ll send you the invite.
Keep it simple and now scroll on this episode, ladies. ✌🏽

What happened recently: Tennessee elected its first transgender woman

Taylor Swift’s home state listened to her message to go and vote. A couple of weeks later Nashville elected Olivia Hill into Metro Council. 🥁

Source: The Tennessean

British Vogue appointed its first Black female editor

BBC reported fashion journalist and podcaster Chioma Nnadi has been named as the new head of editorial content at British Vogue. She will become the first black female head of the industry-leading fashion title, which also has outlets in the US, France and Italy. Slaaay! 💅🏿

Maya Turner became the first female to play in U Sport’s regular season of 🏈 football

Maya Turner became the first-ever female player to play — and score — in a University Sports American football game in Canada. The University of Manitoba Bisons player also kicked the game-winning field goal in double overtime. Surprised and not surprised 😎

Update from around the world:
Bhutan increased its snow leopard numbers by 39.5%

National Snow Leopard Survey 2022-2023 reported the presence of 134 snow leopards. This represents a 39.5% increase from the Bhutan’s first survey in 2016. Other key observations from the survey were the evidence of habitat overlap between snow leopards and other large carnivores like tiger and common leopard, plus the recording of a new deer species to Bhutan, the White-lipped deer/Thorold's deer. This report just gave me a sense of hope. 🌱

Somalia’s all-female newsroom is making waves 🏄🏼‍♀️

Launched in 2022, Somali Women Journalist Organisation is going strong. Led by one of the few female senior news producers in the country, the team of six will produce content for TV, radio and online media on issues such as gender-based violence, women in politics and female entrepreneurs.

They are now training more journalists all over the country from Mahas to Mogadishu. This training is designed for media practitioners in covering traumatic incidents and how to cope with the long-term impact of such reporting. It has been the first of its kind to raise journalists’ awareness of the complexity of survivors' trauma experiences, the impact on themselves as reporters and their audience.

This tweet (X post?) by Sara Wahedi 😎🎤 

A message from a communications nerd:
You can’t and shouldn’t fool Google

It was only a few months ago that we (SEO writers) all screamed, “Yay for ChatGPT” and today Google confirms that it will now ignore “How-to”-rich content.

So what are we going to do, you ask. Here’s some recommendations:
🧘🏻‍♀️ Truly empathise with your customer persona. What occurred in their mind that prompted them to search on Google. Is it really how to do something or would they try find the best tool to do the thing?

🧘🏻‍♀️ Convenience is the most sought-after benefit in any product or service (and people are willing to pay premium for this) so think about keywords that will represent that feature. Remember, “near me” is still a popular search term.

🧘🏻‍♀️ Genuinely help your audience. Buying intent is high on search platforms so they are likely about to make a decision, not just window shopping. Find out what will make or break the deal and write about this to answer their objections or dilemma. Those who can end the analysis paralysis win!

Oh, in case you’re in search of smart, kind, empathetic marketers who genuinely want to help you communicate your message better, check us out. In the meantime, you’re invited to apply for eBay’s Circular Fashion Fund.