FIRST THOUGHT: My Real Opinion

For the first time ever, I gave my friend my full opinion. She was having a conflict with her partner, and normally, I’d be like, Yeah, girl! You do you! I’m the queen of support.

Most of the time, support is what all of us want. But sometimes, we need to speak up and (tactfully) disagree. So I did. And my friend was that kind of furious that’s quiet, which, as you know, is terrifying. (Did I ruin our decades-long friendship?) She hung up the phone and I didn’t let myself feel regret. I knew I did the right thing. Later, she called me and said that her anger at my viewpoint was a lightbulb moment, and that I was right. Today, choose honesty.

WOMEN IN NUMBERS: 60 Percent

Truth be told? That moment with my friend made us a heck of a lot closer. She’s since shared the same kind of feedback with me, and honestly, it’s made me a better person. Friends aren’t just there to support you; they are there to make you the best version of yourself. Honesty goes a long way, even when it comes to brands. I’m more likely to be a loyal consumer of a brand that seems genuine than not, for example, and others feel the same way. 60 percent of people feel engaged and positive after reading blog content that’s written by a real person.

WOMAN TO WATCH: Samantha Fishbein, Co-founder & CEO of Betches Media

There’s nothing better than binge-watching reality TV and commenting on it with your besties. Now, imagine if you could do that while making approximately a ba-zillion bucks? That’s sort of what Samantha Fishbein and her co-founders did with Betches Media.

Samantha and her friends started a blog on WordPress when they were college seniors. It started out pretty chill. Called “Betches Love This,” the blog was a way for the girlfriends to share their hot takes on everything young women cared about, from sorority stereotypes to hookups. The language was raw and unfiltered, offering insight into how a 20-something girl feels about the world around her. (And guess what? It’s not always Lisa Frank rainbows and butterflies).

Now, that little Wordpress blog has transformed nearly a decade later into Betches Media, a multimedia brand that’s known for not taking itself too seriously, and that definitely isn’t too politically correct. Betches Media is a haven for millennial women who need that kind of sassy banter on the regular, boasting seven million Instagram followers.

Samantha says Betches wasn’t this glamorous, overnight success. Each co-founder put in $1,500 of her own money during that initial creation, and they spent a considerable amount of energy fine-tuning their brand. To this day, Samantha and her cofounders own 100 percent of their company – which, NBD, has more than $5 mil in revenue.

There’s plenty of advice to be gained from Samantha’s story. There’s one tidbit that is simple but action-oriented: “stop saying ‘like’" so much (guilty) and “enunciate your words” (double guilty).

Samantha also urges working women to, yes, work hard, but to also play hard. Yep, that’s corny, but it couldn’t be more apt. She believes that doing what you love and achieving the personal life you want trumps working 12-hour days at a place you hate. Samantha’s story shows that sometimes, it pays to be a bad betch.

QUITE THE QUOTE

Oprah Winfrey said:

“You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job, and not be paid for it."