SPEAKING & WORKSHOPS
Stacey Back is a certified Career + Leadership coach and mentor to leaders and business owners in professional services. She is an insightful, inspiring speaker and passionate about sharing her knowledge on a variety of career and leadership topics.
Through her speaking, Stacey shares the successful strategies she uses in her professional coaching work, as well as unique insights from her corporate career and experience running her own business. She is located in Perth, Australia and delivers key-note presentations, group training workshops and online webinars nationally and internationally.
“We wanted to empower and motivate our people to grow their career within our organisation, walk away with a sense of control over their career trajectory and with practical ways to plan and progress their career. The content Stacey delivered met the brief perfectly. Feedback from participants was very positive and aligned with these objectives.
Stacey’s signature career framework was a great way to remind people a successful career comes from the inside out. She provided some great reflection exercises to help people identify what they want out of their career and helped them realise they need to keep developing to stay relevant. Thank you, Stacey for adding great value to our internal Careers Week!”
— Danita Vrakking, Learning & Development Business Partner — Specsavers —
RECENT ENGAGEMENTS
Stacey has presented at national conferences, business events and online webinars for organisations and professional associations, including:
The Law Society of NSW: 2024 Careers Summit, Sydney
BAE Systems Australia: Career Conversations series (national webinars)
The Law Society of NSW: 2023 Annual Conference, Sydney
Google APAC: Internal Women’s Career Development Program (virtual kick-off session)
Suncorp Group: 2023 Career Confidence series (national webinars)
UniSuper: Internal Career Development Expo (national webinar)
Origin Energy Australia: Career Development Sessions (national webinar series)
College of Law Australia: Queensland (online webinar)
Specsavers Australia: Internal Careers Week (national webinar)
CPA Australia: CPA Week Conference, Perth
Australasian Legal Practice Management Association (ALPMA): Keynote presentation
Women in Safety WA: International Women’s Day Keynote
PRESENTATION TOPICS
CAREER PLANNING WITH PURPOSE:
How to take ownership of your career
In the modern business world, taking ownership of your individual career planning and development is vital for career success. Organisations are no longer solely responsible for your professional career development, with decisions on employee development considered in line with strategic business needs. Ongoing self-assessment and management of your career is now essential — especially in a changing world of work.
This signature presentation will help you:
- Understand why it is critical to take ownership of your career and be proactive about your career planning to progress professionally
- Identify the skills you need for the future world of work and how to futureproof your career
- Discover how to assess your current career situation to confirm where you want to go next
- Learn how to clarify your career goals, development areas and establish a plan you can take action on
- Find out how to get promoted, step into a leadership role or grow with your current organisation
COMMUNICATING WITH CONFIDENCE:
How to have a meaningful career conversation
Investing in your people is no longer optional — it’s now necessary to retain your top talent. A key part of this is facilitating ongoing and effective career conversations between individual employees and their managers about their career goals and development. Conversations which go beyond job performance and that are separate to performance appraisals.
As an individual, career conversations can seem scary, pointless or uncomfortable. But learning how to drive your own development and approach career conversations with confidence is crucial to reach your goals and create the career you want. This presentation forms part two of our career planning series and can be delivered as a stand-alone topic or as a follow-up session to the ‘Career Planning with Purpose’ presentation.
As an employee participating in this presentation, you will:
- Know how career conversations differ to performance reviews and what makes them effective
- Understand why ongoing career conversations are essential to create the career you want
- Discover how to prepare for and have a meaningful career conversation
- Learn how to implement your career development plan and reach your career goals
BUILDING SUCCESSFUL TEAMS:
How to lead effective career conversations
Strengthening employee retention and developing your people is pivotal to build a sustainable, high-performing workforce. With continued skills shortages, your most valued employees have many options — and will leave if their career aspirations and development needs aren’t met. A critical part is the ongoing conversation between leaders and their team members about an individual’s career goals and development.
As a leader, you may avoid regular career conversations because you don’t have time, see the value, know how or where to start. But facilitating effective and ongoing conversations is essential to develop your people, reduce turnover and build a successful team, long term. This presentation can be delivered as a single topic or two-part series with the ‘Communicating with Confidence’ session for employees.
As a leader participating in this presentation, you will:
- Find out how career conversations differ to performance reviews and what makes them effective
- Understand current trends, employee motivations and why ongoing conversations are key to develop and retain your best people
- Learn how to effectively prepare for and facilitate powerful career conversations
- Discover 3 strategies to help your team members successfully implement their development plan and accomplish their career goals
HOW TO OVERCOME IMPOSTER SYNDROME
Imposter syndrome is one of the biggest barriers to career progression. You feel like a ‘fraud’ despite evidence of your accomplishments. A lack of confidence leads you to disregard your successes, fear failure and avoid stepping outside your comfort zone.
This has major consequences for your career. It holds you back from being paid what you’re worth and stops you reaching your full potential. Stacey will discuss imposter syndrome and provide practical ways to overcome it.
After participating in this presentation you’ll:
- Understand what imposter syndrome is, why you experience it and the biggest mistakes keeping you stuck
- Discover the unexpected consequences and how it’s holding you back professionally
- Learn simple, actionable strategies to break this cycle — once and for all
- Find out how to beat self-doubt, build confidence and develop the career you’re after
HOW TO THRIVE IN YOUR PROFESSIONAL LIFE:
Insights from my career and business journey
In this incredibly raw, honest and inspiring presentation, Stacey outlines the biggest lessons learnt throughout her professional journey. These lessons have shaped the way she builds her business — and lives her life.
She shares stories and insights from her corporate career, life and personal experience growing two businesses and transitioning careers. Plus, the successful strategies used in her coaching work with leaders and business owners to help them thrive professionally.
Through this thought-provoking presentation, you’ll:
- Understand why you are striving — not thriving — in your professional life and how to break this pattern once and for all
- Learn how to clarify your career goals, figure out what you want and establish a plan you can start to take action on
- Discover why knowing your ‘why’ is key to achieving fulfilment and success in your career
- Find out what holds you back from reaching your professional goals and how to overcome it
- Learn how to build resilience and stay in action — even in the face of personal or professional set-backs
SPEAKING TESTIMONIALS
“Thanks so much Stacey for the awesome session. This was evidenced by the number of attendees and volume of pre-submitted questions, which was higher than I’ve ever seen before. The feedback since the event has also been really good. If anyone is thinking of other ways to develop their employees, reach out to Stacey.”
— Chris Bath, Executive Manager — Employee Council — Suncorp Group —
“Our objectives as an organisation were to build on the narrative that your career is your responsibility to drive. We wanted to give our people practical tips on how to assess where they are and where they want to go next — and Stacey delivered well on those goals. Our people commented that they found the exercises valuable, really liked looking at their values in a different way and gained a new perspective on how to align their careers to their values.”
— Sarah Hart, Employee Experience Design Lead — Origin Energy —
“Our aim was to provide employees with guidance and a structure to approach their career planning in a proactive way and shift the reliance on managers to plan career pathways.
We wanted our people to walk away with practical steps to take control of their career development, a new perspective on how to assess their values, passions and goals and a framework they could easily use and implement. Stacey delivered on all these objectives.
Stacey clearly articulated her advice, insights and always brought home how it was relevant to our people. She engaged the audience effectively, provided lots of practical examples and clear ‘next steps’ for employees. Stacey was a great presenter and a pleasure to work with!”
— Zung Dang, Manager – Employee Council Relations & Projects – Suncorp Group —
“Our goal was for participants to walk away with a sense of clarity and confidence, practical strategies to identify their goals and plan their careers to align with these. Many attendees had uncertainty about their careers and where to start. We wanted Stacey’s session to ‘set the stage’ for the Careers Summit, so they could approach exhibitors with the right questions and some forethought.
Stacey delivered valuable advice, in a way which was accessible to the audience. Her focus on creating a sustainable career, the signature career framework and other tools framed the presentation in a way which was easy to understand. As usual, we found our experience working with Stacey easy and enjoyable — she is very organised and a great communicator!”
— The Law Society of NSW —
“Our aim was to run a series of sessions to support our people as we kick off Suncorp’s performance reviews across the business. I wanted people to feel they weren’t alone in experiencing imposter syndrome and have practical strategies to overcome it. This means picking facilitators who connect with our employees and make the content relevant to them.
Stacey delivered amazing content, engaged with our audience and left them with practical tips and tools. As a facilitator, Stacey shows warmth and care when responding to people and the flow and format of the presentation encouraged a lot of dialogue. Thanks for another great session, Stacey — it was our most popular to date and feedback has been glowing!”
— Tori Adams — Workplace Engagement Consultant — Suncorp Group —
“Our goal was to empower legal professionals (the audience) to take ownership of their careers. We wanted to provide them with the guidance and tools to consider their current situation, what’s next and beyond — and learn how to establish a plan to get there. Stacey did an excellent job in providing a simple framework for our audience to follow.
In designing a purely online program, I require the members of the speaking team to be particularly engaging ‘through a screen’ and Stacey is very good at this. She is clear, professional and her warmth translates well on screen. I enjoyed working with Stacey to develop this program and would love to have her speak for the COL again!”
— Kristy Roodveldt, Community Engagement Officer — College of Law Queensland —
“I’d like to see more of Stacey! Her expertise in career planning and execution is especially beneficial given the changing dynamics around careers and the employment market.”
— COLQ Alumni + Participant — ‘Career Planning with Purpose’ keynote —