134: Gender Pay Gap: Talking About Uncomfortable Topics with Your Audience with Michelle Gyimah [Money Series]

How can you approach an uncomfortable or difficult topic with your audience, so that they open up and you can facilitate a productive conversation, learning, and action taking?

For many companies, the gender pay gap is one of those issues that they want to be seen as making progress on, yet having real conversations around it, that lead to action, can be challenging.

This is the situation that my guest, Michelle Gyimah, finds herself in regularly. Michelle lives in the U.K. and works with companies to improve the pay and leadership gap between men and women.

Michelle faced this issue herself when she went back to work after having children and what she found was frustrating: resistance by companies to part-time and remote work for women at her skill level who should be paid equitably but aren’t.

In this episode, Michelle and I talk about:

• The gender pay gap is more than money
• The way the world of work is structured is putting up barriers
• Michelle’s personal story
• How Michelle gets people at all levels of a company to open up and have these difficult conversations about the gender pay and leadership gap
• The solutions are found when you come to the table
• The kind of company culture that’s open to this
• The workshop activities Michelle uses
• Bringing people’s objections out into the open (this is for any topic you speak on)
• Women speakers not getting paid, especially ones like Michelle who speak on the gender pay gap {rant}

This episode is part of our Money series, episodes 132-136.

If you’re ready to position yourself as a paid speaker as well as generate more leads from your speaking engagements, join our Monetize Your Speaking online group coaching program.

This is a 3-month online, hands-on program that will help you find/refine your unique topic, create your speaking page, packages and fees, optimize your LinkedIn profile, improve your current presentation to make it more sales-driven, and position yourself as a premium speaker.

About My Guest: Michelle Gyimah is the Director of Equality Pays, a gender equality consultancy dedicated to closing workplace pay gaps. In addition to working with employers, Michelle is also a passionate advocate for enabling women to get equal pay and close their pay gaps. She does this by supporting their equal pay investigations and teaching women workplace negotiation skills to allow them to get more of what they want. Michelle has over 10 years’ experience of working at the Equality and Human Rights Commission and holds a Masters in Human Rights from The University of Manchester. Michelle is a regular contributor to numerous national business magazines, international conferences and lives in Manchester, UK.

About Us: The Speaking Your Brand podcast is hosted by Carol Cox. At Speaking Your Brand, we help women entrepreneurs and professionals create their signature talks and gain more visibility to achieve their goals. Our mission is to get more women in positions of influence and power: on stages, in businesses, on boards, in the media, in politics, and in our communities. Check out our coaching programs at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com.

Links:

Show notes at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/134

Connect with Michelle on her website: http://www.equalitypays.co.uk

Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellegyimah/

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Related Podcast Episodes:

• Episode 54: Building a Culture of Trust with Your Team and Audience with Dr. Laura Gallaher
• Episode 97: Thinking Bigger – I Get Coached On-Air by Geraldine Carter
• Episode 125: Handling Hard Conversations at Live Events with Sarah & Beth of Pantsuit Politics
• Episode 126: Gain Skills and Visibility By Serving on a Board with Shireen Motara
• Episode 131: Pitching and Negotiating for Bigger Speaking Opportunities with Maureen Taylor [Confidence Series]

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