As the United States celebrates Women’s Equality Day, AAE was joined by speaker, writer, event moderator, and longtime champion of female empowerment, Angelica Malin. Malin has spent the last ten years establishing herself as a thought leader and influential voice on women in business across multiple mediums, including speaking engagements, bestselling books, podcasts, and online publications.
She’s been featured in Forbes, Real Business, Business Insider, and The Times, and is a regular commentator on TV and radio — appearing on LBC, Sky News, and Talk Radio. Her new book “The PR Bootcamp: Take Yourself from Invisible to Unstoppable,” is coming out in November and is available for preorder now.
I recently had a conversation with Malin about how she got her start, what she is most passionate about, and what’s next for her career.
AAE: Tell us a little about yourself and how you got started in the field and as a speaker.
Malin: I’m Editor-in-Chief of About Time Magazine, one of the UK’s leading lifestyle sites, which I launched straight out of university. In the last 10 years, I’ve been hosting my own female empowerment festivals and events – I’m passionate about female entrepreneurship and have written 2 bestselling empowerment books: “She Made It: a Toolkit for Female Founders in the Digital Age” and “Unattached: Essays on Singlehood.” I’ve been working as a professional events moderator and MC for the last 10 years and have hosted over 150 in-person and virtual events, ranging from huge corporate events to intimate fireside conversations – moderating is a real passion of mine, and I love crafting impactful, inspiring conversations with experts.
AAE: What topics do you speak on and why are they important to you?
Malin: Women’s empowerment is something I’m very passionate about – being a young female entrepreneur, I’ve encountered many challenges during my journey, and I love to inspire women to step up and create a career and life of their dreams. I also love inspiring companies to support their women’s workforce better, and one of my most popular keynote talks — ‘What Women Want: How to Support Female Talent in Your Organisation’ — speaks to this: how we can create work environments that nurture and support female talent from the top down, and what good, compassionate leadership looks like.
I also speak a lot about visibility – how you can use digital channels and platforms to build your brand. Increasing your visibility through social media and publicity is an absolute game-changer for your career; visibility is the ultimate supercharge and can take your career to new heights. I love speaking about how businesses and individuals can boost their digital visibility and create more flow and opportunity with their work. I want people to make work “work” for them, and visibility helps you create the career of your dreams.
Beyond this, I’m a professional moderator, and I use my 10+ years of experience working as a journalist to ask insightful, impactful questions. Moderating is so much more than just asking a list of pre-prepared questions, it’s a real skill and lesson in active listening, holding space, creating an encouraging, warm atmosphere for the attendees, and getting the best out of your interviewee. I moderate both in-person and virtually and work hard to make sure that, through my moderation, the event aligns with the organiser’s goals and objectives for the event.
AAE: What kinds of audiences do you usually speak to? Who do you think resonates the most with your message?
Malin: For keynotes, I usually speak to companies that want to genuinely make a difference within their organisation in terms of supporting women. I’m a qualified life and career coach, and I use my coaching experience to show how practically you can unlock the full potential of the women in your team and help them feel supported, heard, and encouraged from within the organisations. My message resonates with women at every stage of their journey suffering from low confidence, Imposter Syndrome, self-doubt, or feeling held back at work.
For moderating, I speak to audiences of all kinds – I’m topic agnostic and have moderated events on everything from soil regenerations to body confidence. I’ve moderated panels and fireside conversations at conferences in Paris, London, New York and have interviewed high-flying CEOs including Shai Weiss, CEO of Virgin Atlantic, Melanie Whelan, CEO of SoulCycle, Jamie Laing, CEO of Candy Kittens, and senior leaders from Coca-Cola, CISCO, Natwest and many more.
AAE: What is unique about your take on a topic or message that differentiates you from others in the field?
Malin: As a moderator, what’s unique about me is I bring a journalistic approach to interviews – I go beyond what someone is saying and pick up on the subtle nuances of language to forge a deeper connection and create a more impactful conversation. I bring a wealth of experience to moderating, having moderated for over 10 years at events of every size. I’m passionate about creating dialogue that is forward-focused and inspiring – I bring the best out of my interviewee by making sure they are prepared and comfortable, but I’m not afraid to ask unexpected questions to create a diverse and authentic conversation. I’m a lot younger than many moderators out there and am very in touch with what’s happening in the world, so I bring real-world knowledge and relevance to my events, helping provide context to the audience and making sure the audience comes away feeling informed and inspired.
As a keynote speaker, what makes me different is that I have lived and breathed this work for over 10 years – I’ve hosted many female empowerment focused events and have heard first-hand the struggles and challenges women face in the workplace. I bring this first-hand experience into my talks and help tackle women’s pain points at work through actionable ideas that companies can act on straight away. I keep things simple; I look at the most common challenges women face in the workplace and give clarity on what we can do collectively to create a more empowered workforce.
AAE: What’s an example of the impact of one of your performances on an audience member?
Malin: I’ve hosted female empowerment festivals for years, and every so often, someone will message me to tell me that attending one of the festivals changed their life; whether that’s meeting their future business partner at the event, feeling inspired to take the leap into entrepreneurship, having attended a talk, or been given a great business idea. I truly believe that human connection in person is very important, and by creating spaces for women to come together, amazing things can happen. One of our attendees quit her job the day after attending an event and went on to build a multi-seven figure food start-up business – she said if she’d never attended the talk, she wouldn’t have had the confidence to do it.
AAE: What do you think has been your greatest impact?
Malin: I wrote a book called “Unattached” on single empowerment and how to own being single, and it had a huge impact on women all over the world. I get messages on Instagram every day from women who purchased the book and have felt seen and supported by it – to find positivity and strength in their independence and self-reliance through owning being single. The book was an instant bestseller and something I feel very proud of – having an impact on others is a huge drive for me and seeing people pick up the book all around the world makes me feel so fulfilled.
But I believe we can make an impact every day in our day-to-day lives – in the way we speak to others, how generous we are in sharing our expertise and knowledge, how we show up and support others. Each day in your life can be super impactful, it’s just about mindset and the contribution we want to have in the world. I aim to give back much more than I take, and I think that provides you deeper fulfilment and purpose in your work.
AAE: What’s next for you in your career journey?
Malin: I have a new book out in November 2022 – “The PR Bootcamp: Take Yourself from Invisible to Unstoppable,” which will be published by Little Brown on November 3, 2022. I’m excited to share this book with the world; it features insights from my many years of experience working as a journalist on what makes a great PR story and how you can do your own publicity. The book includes rarely-shared secrets of the publicity world and features a toolkit to start building a publicity strategy for yourself right away.
Beyond this, I’ve got lots of events lined up for the fall and am looking forward to moderating panels at conferences in Cornwall, Lithuania, London, and New York this year, plus lots of virtual events! I encourage you to visit my website to learn more, angelicamalin.com.
As we celebrate Women’s Equality Day on August 26, we recognize that the work of advocacy and change go far beyond any single day. It’s the collective effort of each and every one of us — alongside trailblazers like Malin who dedicate their careers to the cause. If you’re interested in booking Angelica Malin for your next event, visit her speaker profile on AAE’s website to learn more.