Letter to you from our founder

Hi and WELCOME!

Let me introduce myself.

My friends call me Mira, originally from Australia and the founder of HerParade.

Over my career to date spanning over 10 years, I've served many small local to large to multinational businesses with turnovers from just a few hundred dollars to others with turnovers of $1 billion dollars or more. I assisted these businesses in growing as well as successfully meeting their business goals and objectives.

I've never been one to back down from a challenge. I've also never been one to decline opportunities presented to me.

I worked over 7 years in a Top 4 accounting firm, where I spent 5 years of that time working overseas with the same company in Germany. 

Against all odds I achieved my milestone promotion in Germany, being one of the first Australians and one of the first internationals to be promoted to Manager level.

Over my time as Manager, I was voted as the most favourite Manager to work with among my peers. I believe this is because I really invested time in my teams and individual team members. I coached and mentored them with my gathered international knowledge and experience, understood their individual qualities as well as identified and encouraged development in areas they weren't so confident in or comfortable with.

Needless to say, the promotion was a HUGE achievement for me and really boosted my confidence. It was so important for me to get this promotion for so many reasons.

Firstly, the city I was in Germany is not so receptive or open to other Europeans, let alone other foreigners. 

Secoundly, the cultural barriers in general life and the workplace were profound! The way we live and work in Australia is just so different. Each day I lived in Germany I was faced with a cultural challenge, which is something I would never have anticipated. 

Thirdly, I was a "young" Australian female in a german male dominated workplace. Most guys who I outranked at the time were the same age as me or older. Getting a promotion being a 'younger', 'non-german' and let a lone a 'non-male' were the real challenges I was faced with. I had to prove my worth and ability ten times as much as the next. I had to defend myself to the extreme. I was also so fortunate that a handful of male and female Senior Managers and Partners in the office really had my back and believed in me. Without having them on my team, I would never have gotten the promotion for sure.

Lastly, I was faced with a massive language barrier. When I left for Germany, I did know some casual German and could read some standard German. BUT that was not enough. In the first 8 months I was in Germany I learned business German and accounting German. If my German counterpart knew I could speak just some German, then they would go all out and speak German only. This was considerably difficult in technical meetings. Each person also uses the language different, and the use of one word that I wasn't familiar would often times throw me off. PLUS the different language dialects in the region were an extra challenge. Sometimes I didn't even know if they were speaking German anymore. 

In hindsight I must say these were my most trans-formative years of my life…But I knew putting myself in such an environment would challenge me, and help me grow, and it really did!

Working in a high performance environment, with continuous deadlines, 60 hour + working weeks, managing teams and all this in a foreign country…I tell you it was TOUGH for sure!

One thing that became VERY apparent over time, was that my survival and success in Germany was definitely associated with my level of confidence. Being outside my comfort zone on a DAILY basis made me initially feel insecure and my confidence levels declined drastically. I was also faced with cultural barriers and language barriers I would have never imagined. It wasn’t even apparent to me at the time what was happening to me and that I wasn’t managing the change well, but a critical moment made it clear that I needed a strategy to build and maintain my confidence. So that’s what I did and still continue to do now on a daily basis.

Oftentimes, the hardest thing you can do is look deep within yourself and tell yourself that you need to work harder and try harder to be the person you can respect and the person you want to be.

I’m not a perfect individual, but I strive each day to be my best self and the person I want to be, as well as practice what I preach.  

I want every woman to know, that regardless the circumstances, they can overcome their challenges they face on a daily basis and be confident.

I created HerParade for the purpose of sending important messages to women that I learnt from my own experiences. 

HerParade envisages a woman, walking tall and confidently, with onlookers surrounding her and cheering her on. Imagine that the woman is you, and the onlookers are the HerParade community.

At HerParade we will give you as much information, tools and tips to help you be your best, most confident you!

We also strive to create a supportive community of women, as well as support women and their causes.

I look forward to continuing my journey with you, and walking with you confidently.

Please contact me or my team if you have any questions or need any friendly advice (hello@herparade.com).

Much love,

Mira x