Want to change the world? Why not start by helping the person next to you.
Layla is a global digital leader and authority on new business models, digital marketplaces, product and technology, scaling globally and leading happy and productive teams.
Current Work
Layla is currently the VP of Product at GO1, the world's largest educational content marketplace. GO1 is now an established leader in online learning and education, and continues to work alongside some of the largest companies in the world covering a wide range of industries and regions.
Layla has coached and led teams from 1 to 50+ globally for the past 20 years, She helps the modern leader to understand how they can find meaning in everyday experiences and get them most from their teams. She works on confidence, self-belief and how to find a human connection with colleagues, peers and managers.
Layla’s products have been nominated at the Webby’s and appeared in the Top 100 apps of 2015 on The Next Web. Layla has built new digital marketplaces from scratch and learned her craft at Melbourne Start-Up Envato where she led the development of Envato’s freelance platform.
Layla is a highly sought as both a public speaker and as an expert in digital business. Layla has delivered keynotes at world leading technology events from PauseFest in Melbourne to Queensland University’s global graduate program. Layla worked Consulting in Melbourne, helping clients to reframe their Digital Businesses and teams.
Previous Experience
SEEK: Layla was the global head of product development at SEEK and handled Engineering, UX, Analytics, SEO and Data Science in ten countries, with teams in South America, Asia and Australia.
Business: Before joining Seek she built and launched Envato Studio, a freelance marketplace where customers can hire a designer or developer from anywhere in the world. At Nielsen, she developed a centralised engineering team to support the roll-out of products and designed and delivered to 8 EMEA regions. She has held board positions in the not-for-profit sector and is completing an Executive MBA.
Talking Points
Business Archetypes - The key to any team is the right mix of people and enough tension to create innovation
In this talk, you’ll learn about the five key team players who help to take a busines sthrough the lifecycle from startup to maturity. The Maverick, The Builder, The Seller, The Optimiser and The Founder. Business Archetypes - The key to any team is the right mix of people and enough tension to create innovation
Each have their unique approach, personality and skills. Together they can do great things, if only they could appreciate one another and find the right spot to thrive.
Leadership
As leaders we need to look beyond CV’s and discover the true passion and potential of our teams and potential employees. There is a hero in all of us and great leaders know how to find them.Leadership
Key Takeaways:
- How to find people for jobs that haven’t been done before
- How to uncover hidden talents and passions in even the most uninspired person
- How to connect with teams and stay professional
- How to take your whole self to work (no more masks)
- How to get satisfaction from leadership and management
- How to be a better employee
Product Development and How to use Lean in real life
Layla will help you learn how to reduce the costs of mistakes, how to get to market quickly, learn and iterate. She’s done this before at corporates and start-ups and developed a unique way to help businesses develop new concepts and save the pain of long business cases and millions of dollars wasted in failure.Product Development and How to use Lean in real life
Key Takeaways:
- How to apply lean development in your business
How to reduce the risk of failure
How to measure the success of an incubation or innovation team
The different incubation models and how they may work for you
Better Public Speaking
The fear of presenting never leaves, people just find ways to harness it. In this masterclass, you’ll learn some of the easiest ways to help you feel more comfortable when presenting, hear some personal stories which may make you laugh and understand that everyone goes through it and you can learn to enjoy public speaking. Don’t worry you won’t have to do any!Better Public Speaking
Understand the fear. Learn practical tools to help you feel better about presenting, be better at presenting and hopefully to see that you could enjoy presenting. Connecting with the audience is the key to an engaging presentation, but how do you do that, without exposing yourself and creating even more anxiety?
You’ll learn that to stare at the back of the room and not make eye contact is the worst advice you’ve ever been given.
Key Takeaways:
- How to embrace the fear
- Practical tips on how to physically improve the sense of anxiety
- Tools on how to create a connection with the audience and understand why it is so important
- How presenting could actually be fun
Video
Layla Foord - National Freelance Day (Sample)
Layla is a global digital leader and authority on new business models, digital marketplaces, product and technology, scaling globally and leading happy and productive teams.Layla did a talk on 'Finding Superheroes for your Organisation' at our Lean Startup Melbourne event. The talk was received very well by the 400 attendees that attended the event. The content ... keep reading Organiser, Lean Startup Melbourne
Layla is one of those speakers that delivers truth, because she's actually done the work. She's also witty, disarmingly intelligent and an absolute pleasure to work with. Book her, work with her, befriend her, she's ace. :)
Layla conducted a great fireside chat at the opening ceremony of GIYC2016 with our media executive. Layla interacted really well with the host and also the audience, capturing their attention with worldy examples of her start up and work adventure, and also embracing topics of worklife balance and motherhood which struck a deep connection with the audience. Layla's talk was exceptionally well received and memorable, with fantastic feedback from the audience and also corporate sponsors and other speakers in the room. Layla was a pleasure to work with, really organised, on time and friendly to all our executive and the audience. We loved having Layla talk at GIYC. Thanks Layla!
Layla spoke at our Carsales independent Guild created to showcase women in business and I had previously seen her speak at a start up event. Layla shared her personal and professional journey and the audience was engaged throughout the talk. Layla is a story teller with the presence of a friend which made everyone feel they could connect with her words. I highly recommend Layla as a speaker and coach.
I attended a presentation skills seminar that Layla ran and found it extremely useful and a lot of fun. Layla's down to earth approach made the seminar very accessible. She provides a range of different tools to help people of all skill levels. Whether you're a novice or a seasoned professional, you'll learn something you can implement immediately from this seminar. Thanks for the course Layla.
