What does real influence look like? Forget follower counts. In this episode, recorded ahead of The Influencers 2026, Anthony Perl sits down with Jessica Brown, the founder of the Warrior Woman Foundation. Jessica spent a decade as a high school teacher in South Western Sydney and three decades advocating for children in the protection system before she started the Foundation. Her whole model rests on one idea: a young woman leaving the out-of-home care system needs one safe adult who will not give up on her. She calls the work believing in someone, and the results are extraordinary.

Key talking points

• Why she started with teaching, then seventeen years running the Sister2sister charity, then the Warrior Woman Foundation, and what she learned at each step
• The odds these young women are up against: two-thirds of the youth homeless population come from the out-of-home care system, and one in two will be homeless, unemployed, incarcerated or a first-time parent within a year of leaving it
• The three pillars of the Young Warrior Woman Program, built on self-determination theory: connection to a safe community, life skills education, and mental health support
• Why the first question a young woman asks her mentor is often "why are you being so nice to me?", and what it takes to earn that trust
• The mentor who started as a bank teller, became a primary school principal, and joined the army at fifty: proof that you can pivot your career at any age
• Why the true empowerment comes when a young woman makes her own decisions, and why mentors are taught to hold back rather than fix
• The difference between telling people what to do and real influence, and why people can spot an inauthentic voice straight away
• Why she says "be kind, always", and what one safe adult can do for a young woman the system has let down

About Jessica Brown

Jessica Brown is the founder and chief executive of the Warrior Woman Foundation, which she started in 2020. Before that she spent ten years as a high school teacher in South Western Sydney and three decades advocating for children in the protection system, including founding and running the Life Changing Experiences Foundation and its Sister2sister program for seventeen years. The Warrior Woman Foundation runs the Young Warrior Woman Program, a six-month mentoring and life skills program for vulnerable young Australian women, with a particular focus on young women leaving the out-of-home care system. Since 2020 it has supported more than 1,275 young women, and its mentors have contributed over a million dollars' worth of in-kind hours. Jessica's awards include Pride of Australia, an Australian of the Year nomination, and the NSW Woman of the Year People's Choice in 2013. The Warrior Woman Foundation is the charity partner of The Influencers 2026.

The Influencers 2026

The Influencers 2026 is one morning in Sydney: Wednesday 7 October 2026, 8.30am to 12.00pm, Northside Conference Centre, Crows Nest. The theme is there's more than one way to become influential, explored through five lenses: media, communication, marketing, leadership and business. Tickets and group bookings are available via influencers2026.com.au.

Links

• Listen to the episode: https://youtu.be/PYCDsPnkpE4
• The Influencers 2026: influencers2026.com.au
• Warrior Woman Foundation: warriorwoman.org.au
• Podcasts Done For You: PodcastsDoneForYou.com.au

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