I'm Home. Or Am I?
- 2 hours ago
- 7 min read
Last year I took my eldest daughter to an industry event, afterwards she said, "I always forget how much you do for women and how much you mean to them, I just see a woman sitting at her computer in her dressing gown!"
After three weeks of standing on stages, signing books and connecting to old friends, new allies and the energy of the land, it's tough coming back to sitting at my computer in my dressing gown.
But I return with a much stronger focus. After a year where the 7th Tribe hasn't just pivoted - we've pirouetted, our direction and message is now crystal clear.
The future is amazing but only if we right the biggest mistake humanity ever made.
The world’s first cities stood for over 1000 years created by the trade of magnificent textiles, pottery, jewellery, spices and perfumes.
Then men smelted copper balls they could throw with a leather sling.
Instead of collaborating and trading with neighbouring cities the invention of war meant they could just raise an army, steal everything, rape the women and take men as prisoners to work the mines.
This is not normal. Anyone who's ever read anything by Dutch historian Rutger Bregman knows that humans are not naturally violent, that myth spread through the ancient world in 3,000BCE and it led to empire, a caste system, patriarchy and the destruction of powerful women both sacred and business-savvy.
What women have achieved in the last 100 years is incredible, there are women in rooms our ancestors could have only dreamed of. Now it's time to redesign the systems that weren't built for how the world is supposed to be. A world with a balanced matriarchy and patriarchy.
This message went down well. But it took some trickery to get men in the room.
My first speech at the Cairns Crocodiles advertising festival was entitled, "What's a Sheila Got to Do To Get A Beer Round Here? Invent it." It was held on stage at Hemmingway's Brewery and it was billed as me telling the story of how I created the James Squire brand. To be fair, that's how I started off, but I quickly turned it round to the fact that women invented beer and that was the first step to civilisation.
That evening I went to the Pinterest party at an undisclosed location which meant standing in line waiting for buses, which is a great way to get chatting to new people. The first ad guy got my hackles up. He boasted about the women in his agency and then introduced me to his executive creative director who doesn't employ a single woman. In 2026?
I had to walk away when my blood started to boil after the ECD told me "Female creatives are just so hard to find!"
That night I made a decision I was never using the word misogynist ever again. It lets them off way too easy. Of course they love women. Some women. Now I'm calling them what they truly are - male supremacists!
Fortunately the next group I came across were my people! The last bus to the cane farm out of town broke down so we all piled into an Uber and we ended up in outer space and partied till the last bus home.
The next speech was with Matt Lawton of Five By Five Global. Last year he joined me and Cindy Gallop as we tackled the bias in the LinkedIn algorithm. It was lovely spending time with such a great ally and the genuine admiration for him from the women of Australian advertising is really something to behold.
And something every man in the industry can learn from. Wanna grow your LinkedIn reach and be praised by the industry? Follow women and join the conversations on the things that matter to them.
In the talk we went from the genesis of the experiment which was in May 2025 when Cindy realised that 'sex goddess' was now a banned term on Meta. And I saw my magic Midjourney prompt that created stunning images of goddesses...
...had now turned them into sex objects.
We then talked about the famous experiment where we all posted using every word banned by the Trump administration. Cindy reached 0.6% or her audience. I reached 8.5% of my followers and Matt reached an incredible 143%!
More proof came in November when women changed their gender on the platform and reported 400% rises in views within a week.
I imagined John Evans who, after having a career like mine would be on his yacht not giving a toss about anything. That post was my 3rd highest performing post of the last twelve months.
Don't worry, although I'd love a fraction of his pension pot, I'd still hate to be him!
Matt introduced the new revamped Fairness In The Feed website which now includes a buddy up system that allows men who wanted more solid proof of the bias built into LinkedIn's algorithm to be able to be part of a larger more scientific study.
And I put my theory to the test that it has nothing whatsoever to do with LinkedIn, the problem is in the base code of the LLMs. Two hours earlier I had asked Gemini, "Who were the world's first scientists?" and it gave me Thales of Miletus, a Greek dude from somewhere around 624–546 BCE.
When I asked it about the ancient women brewers, it quickly changed its tune by listing them as the first scientists and went on to name the first astronomer and chemist - both women. It promised me it would never make that mistake again.
I said I'd test it, which is exactly what I did live on stage with over 100 participants.
Only one of them got Thales, everyone else got the ancient Mesopotamians and one woman (who has obviously trained her Gemini well) got Ancient Aboriginal women.
This is a big reason why this report is so late, I came home spurred with ideas for action! Because if we can change the mind of one of the LLMs in under two hours, what can we achieve with an onslaught of corrections across all of them?
The 7th Tribe have just launched our Machine Teaching project!
I was sad to leave Cairns, the Crocodiles was definitely one of the most fun Advertising events I've ever been to. And Pippa Chambers of Misfits Media deserves a medal for her organisational genius!
I did hit some everyday ageism on the flight to Sydney, the nice guy sitting next to me struck up conversation asking how my trip had been, I said I was exhausted, it had been a big week, he laughed and said, "Not as big as ours, we've been at an advertising conference!" He was quite surprised I had been there too. Then he put his foot even further in his mouth by lamenting that as a white, cis male, he's finding it tough to get his dream career. A "diddums" may have slipped out initially, but by the time we landed he was saying, "We've got to look at it like a football team, we've been at the top of the table, we couldn't stay there forever, we've got to start playing a new game."
So do women, which is where I got very excited about the message I was bringing. I reckon the quickest way to get a new narrative out there is via your sisters. I spent 26 years of my career as an advertising creative in Sydney. Meeting the women currently doing the job it doesn't look like it's got any easier than when I first arrived in 1987. 'Mad Women' who change culture, who are overlooked, undervalued and creatively starved? The perfect mob to bring a whole new way of thinking into the world.
And if the reviews are to be believed, it worked! "I walked out of INNOCEAN Australia last night with smudged mascara, new besties, and a powerful urge to throw a burning brick through a window."Â
A week later I delivered the same talk at HERO Melbourne with the same response, "If the brief was to leave the room braver than we entered it and Jane Evans delivered."
But the person who really delivered was Leah Morris from the Mavens who organised everything. Leah first interviewed me for her magazine a few years back and even though I'm on the other side of the world I always follow and support her mission to not just speak on issues, but ignite conversations that demand attention and inspire change.Â
As soon as she discovered I was coming to the Crocs, she started organising events in both Sydney and Melbourne hosted by INNOCEAN and HERO and sponsored by No Sunday Blues. She absolutely blew me away with her cool, calm organisational skills, and to feel the love from the audience for her and everything she does was truly a thing of beauty.
It was a successful tour, I printed 100 advance copies of my book 'The Gospel Of A Mad Woman' and sold them all! The talks certainly satisfied my advertising 'Mad Woman', and the reaction to the new narrative spurred my 'Mad As Hell Woman' into action.
In between I snuck off to the corner of the world where the world makes total sense to the 'Mad Woman' that is me too.
Here's an inside joke for everyone who has read my book. Or an intriguing teaser for the launch of the next edition coming in mid July...
After spending time with new acquaintances, allies and fellow trouble makers, hiding away with those who feed my spirit and soul, and meeting up in a Sydney pub with a group of old friends, I made a decision.
It's time I spent more time in Australia. Because what's the point of two homes if you only spend your time in one of them.
Pre-order your limited edition copy of the Gospel Of A Mad Woman.
Listen to the Maven's 'Mind Your Manners' podcast where I spill all the tea!
Watch out for my appearance on the 'Fuck It List' podcast coming out on July 1st, we had a blast recording it!
You can check out all the talks or book me to speak here.