Embracing Boldness and Asking For What You Want with Shira Yevin

Shira Yevin, founder of Gritty in Pink, shares her journey as an entrepreneur, musician, and activist. In this latest She Leads Podcast episode, Shira discusses her mission to achieve gender equality in the music industry and the creation of an online marketplace - INPINK - which connects women working in all aspects of the music business with industry pros who are committed to hiring a diverse talent pool of women.

Shira's tenacity, boldness, and belief in her cause have led to significant accomplishments, including investment from Live Nation in her company, Gritty in Pink, as well as the support of influential figures like Melissa Etheridge who is now a strategic advisor. 

In her conversation with Adrienne, Shira emphasizes the importance of being bold, asking for what you want, and not taking no for an answer. This exciting conversation spans several topics including networking, confidence, and asking for what you want. Adrienne & Shira delve into the challenges faced by women in the business world and the importance of being bold and relentless. Shira shares personal stories and insights that will inspire and encourage listeners to step out of their comfort zones and advocate for themselves.

Adrienne and Shira’s challenge to listeners of The She Leads Podcast - Go out and ask for something you want — even if it feels out of reach!

Show notes
👧 Shira has been a performer since she was three years old: she loves to lead and she was always happy on the stage. 05:22
👩‍🎤 Shiragirl is her all-girl punk rock band: they are in the studio, recording a new album. 06:51
🦄 Shira’s band crashed the Vans Warped Tour in a pink RV to open the stage for women-led bands: crusades for carving a space for women in music and other industries.  08:36
👩‍💼 Girls in the Hood, beverage business, launching startups, fundraising: Shira loves marketing, sales, and branding. 09:49
🎤 Gritty in Pink community pivoted during COVID: fundraising, Instagram events, webinars, support for musicians, and jamming. 10:43
💼 Creating a marketplace for women: InPink is a place to find and hire female professionals with specialized talents.12:41
⚠️ Ask and you shall receive: Shira is bold & relentless, and she advises women not to take no for an answer. 16:20
🌺 Shira’s friend challenged and supported her: women tend to give up too soon. 26:17
💪 Today’s challenge is to flex your confidence-muscle: ask for something you want. 30:14
💲 NY Tech Week - Shira is the host of event Investor Roundtables: Women Who Wire. 33:12 
 

Links:

Gritty in Pink: www.grittyinpink.co 

INPINK: www.inpink.com 

Get Your Tickets to She Leads LIVE 2024 | NYC: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/she-leads-live-2024-conference-for-women-entrepreneurs-and-leaders-nyc-tickets-804287103377?aff=oddtdtcreator 

> >> "I love ❤️ Adrienne and The She Leads™ Podcast!” If that thought crossed your mind at any time while listening to our special show, can I ask you to please take a moment and give our podcast some love? To do so, simply Rate, Review & Follow Us on Apple Podcasts & Spotify. Taking this simple action helps my team and I to spread the word about all the incredible guests of The She Leads Podcast and contributes overall to helping women leaders and entrepreneurs everywhere! 🗺️ Also, if you haven’t done so already, please +follow the podcast so you never miss an episode. Thank you so much!! XO -Adrienne  <<

Creators & Guests

Host

She Leads® Media

👩🏻‍⚖️ ⭐️ Adrienne Garland - She Leads® Podcast Network - 4 women X women ⭐️ 🎧 Sugar Coated Podcast Host| Leadership Conferences, Retreats #SheLeads #Women #entreprenuers

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Discover the go-to podcast for driven women entrepreneurs ready to lead! Join host Adrienne Garland, CEO of She Leads Media, as she uncovers the unfiltered path to scaling your business to 7 and 8 figures. Each week, bold female founders share their raw stories, overcoming challenges, and proven strategies for explosive growth – all without sugar-coating a thing.
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Adrienne Garland (00:01.363)
Hello and welcome back to the She Leads Podcast. This episode is brought to you by the She Leads Podcast Network and She Leads Live 2024, which is taking place in October in New York City. The She Leads Podcast Network is the podcast network for women by women. So I am incredibly excited. My next guest is Shira Yevin. She's an entrepreneur, an artist, an activist.

and the founder of Griddy and Pink. Shira studied communications, business, and theater arts at the University of Pennsylvania. She's been a featured speaker at South by Southwest and featured in Billboard, Alternative Press, NPR, The New York Times, and Forbes. And if that's not enough, after forming her all -female band, Shira Girl, Shira became known for advocating for women in male -dominated spaces.

Shira and her band crashed the Vans Warped Tour and created the Shira Girl Stage for Female Artists, which hosts 300 plus artists, including rock icons, Joan Jett and Paramore. In addition to growing a career as an accomplished tour musician, Shira also cultivated a career in the beverage industry, earning a VP director role.

or VP and director roles in marketing and sales for iconic brands from legendary products like Pabst Blue Ribbon to startups such as Owl's brand, excuse me, to startups such as Owl's Brew and helped launch Bev Canned Wine in 2018. In January of 2020, Shira launched a new female -led platform to empower women within the music industry called Gritty in Pink.

Its mission is to achieve gender equality in the music industry, which is why we support this enthusiastically. Gritty in Pink has featured 280 plus emerging artists with a collective following of 30 million, what? On Instagram and TikTok. The platform is partnered with more than 20 brands and charities, including Fender and the ACLU, having raised thousands.

Adrienne Garland (02:14.963)
thousands of dollars for charities with their Instagram Live fundraisers. The Gritty and Pink community continues to grow as they launch their new online marketplace in pink, which connects women working in all aspects of the music business with industry pros who want to hire diverse women. Recently, the company graduated from the Long Beach Accelerator, welcomed Melissa Etheridge, who I love.

As a strategic advisor, you're so lucky and received investment from Live Nation. Now, I wanted to read all of that because I'm blown away and I hope that you will be too and I cannot wait to dive into our conversation. Welcome to the SheLeads podcast, Shira.

Shira (03:02.286)
Thank you so much for having me. Happy to be here.

Adrienne Garland (03:04.755)
I am very excited. Yeah, I'm so excited for you to be here and just to learn all about you and what drives you and how maybe some of the women that are in the She Leads podcast audience can kind of tap into some of that energy as well. So why don't we start with the sort of let's let's roll it back. I mean, even before college, tell me a little bit about who Shira was when you were growing up.

Shira (03:36.846)
Well, I love to perform. I've been dancing since the age of three and doing musical theater. And so I was always really happy on stage and a very social person. And I would say also, you know, socially I was a bit of a boss, a little bossy, you know, but, but I always love to, you know, sort of lead things.

Adrienne Garland (03:52.915)
I love it.

Adrienne Garland (04:00.111)
And so in college, tell me a little bit, you chose communications, which makes a lot of sense.

Shira (04:07.726)
Yeah. So I actually went to a science and tech high school. It was Magnet School in Bergen County, New Jersey called the Academy for the Advancement of Science and Technology. And so what was cool was, you know, we learned about, you know, programming and putting up a website and a lot of things that they weren't really teaching at the time in high schools. And I did a lot of science, but going to Penn is sort of where I discovered more about the humanities. And yes, I studied communications with a concentration in marketing. So I took coursework at

Wharton as well, the business school, and I minored in theater arts. And I was one class away from an art history minor as well, but I did not want to take one -on -one. I was really into the modern art. I studied abroad in London as well, Goldsmiths College, and really just fell in love there with performing. I was doing performance art, and I also started recording music when I studied abroad in London. So that's kind of what brought me to... I was doing creative writing and spoken word and performance art, but that's what sort of brought me into the world of

Adrienne Garland (04:38.163)
Yeah. Wow.

Adrienne Garland (04:46.243)
my gosh.

Adrienne Garland (04:58.259)
Shira (05:06.254)
recording music and being an artist and eventually starting my own band, Shira Girl.

Adrienne Garland (05:09.875)
That's so amazing. And so does who tell me a little bit about your band and how it's sort of transformed from when you started it to where you are now, because you you have, you know, sort of use the band in order to create this platform, or at least it's led you to this incredible platform that you have created. So can you tell me a little bit about your band about your band members about your music, all of it?

Shira (05:37.71)
Yeah, so, you know, my project really started out more as a solo project. I was doing sort of more electro punk and I had a DJ. And then as it sort of progressed more into like an all -girl punk rock band, I've been making music with my longtime drummer, Rain Palladino, who's actually New York based now and a professor at Hunter for Women's Psychology. But my current lineup is pretty amazing. We actually just went in.

Adrienne Garland (06:04.435)
in the studio with our producer Tim Armstrong, who's the front man for Rancid and the producer for Kagan, and many other artists. And so yeah, half my band plays for Demi Lovato.

Shira (06:04.686)
their studio with our producer, Tim Armstrong, who's the front man for Rancid and has produced for Pink and many amazing artists and won Grammys. And so yeah, Half My Band plays for Demi Lovato now. They're very talented. You know, they're always touring. Constance Antoinette is my guitarist. She's incredible. She also tours with Till Indemann from Ramstein. And, you know, depending on sort of everyone's availability, we played with a few different bassists. Leanne Bose just joined us in the studio. Again, she plays for Demi Lovato and a bunch of other artists.

Adrienne Garland (06:30.131)
my God. That is amazing. And so I guess as you were sort of coming up in the music world, you saw that there was somewhat, to put it lightly, inequality. So can you talk a little bit about what opened your eyes to that and what made you want to do something about?

Shira (06:34.35)
amazing artists. So yeah, it's been quite the ride.

Adrienne Garland (06:59.155)
that, you know, making that inequality go away.

Shira (07:03.054)
Yeah, absolutely. I was very active in the riot girl scene in the 2000s in New York as an activist and feminist and was really inspired by the riot girl movement of the 90s, Bikini Kill and zine culture, as well as studying women's studies and feminism in college. And that's kind of what led me to do performance art. And then after I graduated, I was actually working on the Vans Warp Tour.

which is America's longest running music festival. I don't know if you're familiar with it. It's launched bands like Green Day, Blink, 182, very male dominated. I was working on the tour. I noticed no female musicians on stage. So my band and I crashed the tour in our pink RV and created a stage for over 300 female front of bands, including Paramore and their first ever tour. Joan Jett graced the stage. We got in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Adrienne Garland (07:47.475)
I'll read it as soon as I can.

Adrienne Garland (07:56.627)
My God.

Shira (07:56.974)
And this set me off on a lifelong crusade to carve out a space for women in music and other male dominated industries. So that was, that's really, you know, that was my kind of origin story for starting Gritty in Pink, which actually we had an article written about us that was called Gritty in Pink and that's where the name came from. So that's, yeah, that's what kind of grew this whole, this whole thing. Beyond that, I, after the tour and doing the stage, I also started.

Adrienne Garland (08:07.315)
wow.

Adrienne Garland (08:22.515)
I also started.

Shira (08:23.854)
a monthly in Brooklyn called Girls in the Hood and it was female DJs, female bartenders, female front of band. So I've always kind of been on this track. But I did also have a little side, I don't want to call it a detour, but a little side journey, let's say, in the beverage business, another boys club. And I worked for Pabst Blue Ribbon for years doing marketing and sales. And then I worked for a couple startups. I helped launch Bev Canned Wine, which just got acquired by Gallo last year, as well as Al's Brew Boozy Tea, as you mentioned.

Adrienne Garland (08:48.659)
Yeah.

Shira (08:53.006)
And so that really strengthened my know -how about how startups work, fundraising, you know, the VC world and launching a brand. And so marketing, sales and branding is really, you know, my cup of tea, no pun intended.

Adrienne Garland (09:08.467)
Yes. So do you have a team that helps you on the business side of things? Because clearly you're very busy.

Shira (09:18.446)
Yeah, absolutely. I have an incredible team. We have about 10 women, all female team, and we have an intern army. One of my advisors teaches at USC and we got linked in with their intern program. And it's amazing because the interns are so passionate about the movement and they end up all, for the most part, staying on past their semesters or whatnot.

Adrienne Garland (09:43.827)
Wow.

Shira (09:44.622)
So yeah, it definitely takes a village. Plus we have a very vibrant community of Griddy and Pink, all the musicians. When we brought Griddy and Pink back as a brand, it was actually January, 2020. And we started as an event series, the All Girl Jam. 50 female musicians doing theme cover songs. So we had like the basis for Pink, the best female musicians in LA. We did Grammys month, Valentine's, Women's month. And then of course, in March of 2020, COVID hit. So that's when we started.

Pivoting, I say pivoting is like the word of the 20s, right? To do Instagram live stream fundraisers, because we're all at home looking for connection, performance opportunities, a way to make a difference. And we did raise thousands of dollars for charities like ACLU, Keep a Breast Head Count. And really we were able to grow our community from this kind of smaller LA based scene thing to a national network. We started doing Zoom workshops, everything from songwriting to social media.

Adrienne Garland (10:16.211)
Yeah.

Adrienne Garland (10:42.419)
Hmm.

Shira (10:42.478)
And that's when we kind of got the idea to launch the marketplace the following year, because, you know, I was really just kind of ideating on how can I help women in the industry. And I realized at the end of the day, what do women need to get hired and to get paid? Period. So that's how the idea for our marketplace in pink .com came along.

Adrienne Garland (10:58.099)
Yeah, yeah.

Adrienne Garland (11:03.763)
So can you talk a little bit about the online marketplace? What is the intention? Of course, it's to get women hired and paid. How does that sort of work? Because if there are a lot of men that are sort of dominating the industry, do you welcome them in? How does that all work?

Shira (11:25.39)
Yeah, absolutely. Well, any gender can hire on the platform. And, you know, in fact, that's where we see the need. People complain about a lack of pipeline. For example, when we do an event at a club, you know, we always request a female sound tech. And a lot of times they'll say, well, I don't, I don't know any women sound techs. Do you have any? You know, it's like, yes, yes, we do. So it's not a pipeline problem. The talent is out there. It's just giving them an easy place to find them and hire them.

So that's really where we're at in terms of welcoming everyone. And we find that a lot of companies are male dominated. They want to diversify their teams or they're working to market a product that's geared towards women or they want more diversity. We get specific requests like you might want a queer creator for a Pride Month campaign and we have diversity tags. So InPink makes it easy to find specialized talent. So yeah, we really do welcome everyone.

to the movement. Male allies are an important part of this and we want them to feel comfortable hiring talent.

Adrienne Garland (12:28.883)
Yeah, absolutely. It's so smart. We can't as much as, and I run into this problem with, or it's not a problem, but I run into this with SheLeads. We want to create these spaces for women to thrive, but if we are just talking to one another, it's this echo chamber, and that's really not what the intention is. The intention is equality, and for equality, there needs to be balance. It needs to be all.

And it's challenging sometimes to, I think, be taken seriously, at least from a conference production point of view when you're talking about all women. So I think having male allies, any, all allies is really the way to go. And it's something that even with She Leads that I think about often, the name of the company, my brand, it's She Leads and it's all about women.

But it's really not. It's really not all about women. It's about humanity, right? And equality for humanity, equality for all. It's just that when you focus on a group like women who are not equal, even though we have 51 % of the population worldwide, why are we not equal? So we definitely have a long way to go. And sometimes it's a little disheartening to see some of the

Shira (13:33.454)
Right.

Adrienne Garland (13:57.171)
statistics that we are just not able to change. The fact that you were able to receive investment is a huge accomplishment. Less than 2 % of women get any type of funding whatsoever. So the fact that you submitted your company into this accelerator program, that you were able to get the attention of someone as incredible as Melissa Etheridge,

Shira (14:15.374)
Right?

Adrienne Garland (14:25.939)
And then to receive financing, that's a feat onto itself. So, you know, how, you know, listen, it's clear that you are tenacious, bold, you believe in what you do, you're doing something that's impacting millions of people. So I, you know, it's obvious why, you know, this is sort of working.

But for those who are out in the audience thinking to themselves, well, how can I sort of make a difference? How can I get funding, get attention? What kind of advice do you have for someone that might not be as bold, accomplished, educated, worldly, talented as you?

Shira (15:15.534)
You know, there's sort of two things that have kept me going. And I won't say that they work 100 % of the time, but they seem to have worked for me. I feel that as a woman in business, you have to be relentless. And so the number one thing for me is ask and you shall receive. I think so many women don't ask for what they want. And, you know, women don't negotiate their salary offers, for example.

Adrienne Garland (15:36.307)
Hmm.

Shira (15:45.614)
And I want to mention, you brought up a good point about, well, it's not just about women, it's about everyone, right? And some people think that In Pink is sort of like segregating people or it doesn't have to just be for women. And we got that with the Warped Tour stage too. Why do we need a stage for just women? Well, guess what? None of these 300 bands would have played the tour period if it weren't for the stage. It's a gateway, right? And the numbers don't lie. Like we're not there yet. Yes, let's get to equality where we don't need it, but we still do. So...

Adrienne Garland (16:13.715)
Right.

Shira (16:15.694)
On that note, when it comes to the gig economy, which is what we're focused on with InPink, women actually make 50 % less on digital platforms like Fiverr. Why? Because they're underpricing their services. So we're working on different aspects to address that on InPink. And everyone knows about 84 cents to the dollar, right? And at this rate, who knows when we'll see quality, but...

Adrienne Garland (16:28.403)
Hmm.

Shira (16:41.87)
I mean, 50 cents a dollar in the gig economy is incredible. And again, it goes back to women don't ask for what they want. They think, and I know I actually have friends that come to me for advice on negotiating, you know, and they say, well, you know, it's a good enough offer. You know, I don't want to rock the boat. And I try to tell them, because I've been on the hiring side, guess what? They're never giving you the ceiling when they give you the first offer. And also if it is, because let's say the offer comes without, this is all I can do.

Adrienne Garland (16:44.563)
I did not know that.

Shira (17:08.911)
There is no harm in asking. They're not going to rescind your offer, ladies, if you ask for more. They'll just say, if they want you, they'll say, sorry, that's all I can do. But women, I don't know. It's like, we don't have the sense of entitlement that a lot of men have, you know? And so that's an important thing, I think, is asking for what you want and not being scared to hear no, because the thing is, if you hear no, like you're no different of a place than if you never asked. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's just...

Adrienne Garland (17:21.523)
Yeah.

Adrienne Garland (17:37.587)
Yeah.

Shira (17:38.254)
It does take resilience to deal with rejection and believe me, I deal with it a lot every day pitching to investors, but it's like you didn't lose anything because if you didn't ask, you wouldn't have gotten it anyway. So, you know, that's my personal value. I mean, that being said, like I said, it works most of the time. There are some times where it does come back to bite you in the ass where people feel like, you know, you're too needy or something, but you know, that's the line that you have to toe. I think you have a lot more to lose personally.

Adrienne Garland (17:48.371)
Yeah.

Shira (18:07.822)
by the fear of being needy versus just asking for what you want. So that's a big thing for me. And then the other thing is, and again, this can be dangerous territory, but it has worked for me, is not taking no for an answer. And that doesn't mean being obnoxious about it, but okay, if it's no, maybe it means no right now, or no this way, but how about that way? So trying to kind of find the workarounds, because there's so many times where I've received nos that became yeses.

Adrienne Garland (18:08.083)
Yeah.

Adrienne Garland (18:11.955)
Yeah.

Adrienne Garland (18:20.083)
Mmm.

Adrienne Garland (18:25.171)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Shira (18:37.23)
or maybe's or even people ghost you and you know, we're all in our heads like, you know, this investor obviously doesn't want to invest. I feel like I'm harassing her. I'm texting her, you know, every week and she keeps pushing me back. And then one day you text and she says, call me tomorrow at 1 20. I'll be boarding a plane. And then you, and then you call her and she says, I'm going to invest in your company, you know? So it's, and it's not that she said, no, it's not that she said no, but I was trying to get a meeting, you know, and she said, I'm traveling, I'm busy. So, you know, I think.

Adrienne Garland (18:55.091)
my God. Yeah, don't give up.

Adrienne Garland (19:05.043)
Yeah.

Shira (19:05.486)
that's like an important, it's like, it's that persistence, you know? And like I said, it does, sometimes I'm not gonna lie, it rubs people the wrong way sometimes, you know? But those are not my people also, you know? Like I am who I am too, you know what I mean? So you kind of have to like surround yourself with people who respect the hustle and understand, you know, that that's how you got what you want. And of course, you know, I always want to be respectful of boundaries and things like that. But I just mean, you know, when someone, to give an example, going back to the Warped Tour,

Adrienne Garland (19:08.275)
Mmm.

Adrienne Garland (19:14.515)
Yeah.

Adrienne Garland (19:30.099)
Of course.

Shira (19:35.47)
We tried to get Kevin Lyman, who's now my mentor, advisor, and investor in my company, he's the founder of Warped Tour. We tried to get him to allow us to do a stage for women in the girls' garage tent. And he said, you know what? There's a lot going on this year. It's the 10th anniversary of the tour. Let's do it next year. Of course, when you're 21, next year is like 10 years, right? So then we decided to crash because we're like, next year, you know? So...

Adrienne Garland (19:54.547)
Yeah.

Shira (19:59.342)
But we did ask, you know, I asked for what I wanted and we didn't get it. And then we had, and then, you know, we kind of thought we were going to get kicked out. And he was impressed. He was impressed with my chutzpah. By the way, my mom, my Jewish mother says, if you look up chutzpah in the dictionary, my face appears. I don't know. But anyhow, you know, so again, those are things that work for me. I know it's not for everybody, but I do try to put this out there because you do have to go out of your comfort zone. And the other thing is people say to me a lot, they're like,

Adrienne Garland (20:07.507)
Wow.

Adrienne Garland (20:12.723)
Thanks, mom.

Shira (20:25.23)
How do you do what you do? You walk into a room, it's so awkward. I hate not working on the introvert. And I just wanna assure people, it's never not awkward. It's awkward for me too. You know what I mean? It is a hard thing, but you just sort of have to like grin and bear it and get over that part. I am one of the most extroverted people probably, but I still, when I go to an event alone and I walk in that room, I still feel awkward, but you just have to kind of be like, all right, well, we're all here to network and you just go up to someone and it's usually well received. So.

Adrienne Garland (20:53.299)
Yeah, that's good.

Shira (20:53.71)
Yeah, I just try to kind of put that out there and encourage people who might not be, you know, as extroverted or bold as I am. Yeah.

Adrienne Garland (21:02.035)
Yeah, we do. We get in our heads so much about what other people are thinking. And truth is, they're not even thinking about you. They're thinking about how awkward they feel. So if you can be the one to sort of break that, or just open that conversation by saying whatever. It doesn't even matter oftentimes. And I find that women are actually really great at networking because we are.

Shira (21:12.462)
Right.

Adrienne Garland (21:30.643)
usually very kind when we go up to somebody and we give someone a compliment about something that we find appealing. So I think that's a great way. You just sort of say, I really like this about you or that about you. Tell me more. And oftentimes it's as easy as that and it leads to something else. But yeah, I...

I totally love all of your advice about being relentless, being bold, asking for what you want. We are socialized from such a young age, you know, to like shut up, to be shamed if we ask for too much or we, you know, it's like shut up and sit down little girl. And it's something that we really need to get over if we're not somebody that, and I think,

probably having a background in theater is something that everybody should have because you have to get up and you have to put yourself in front of people that could potentially ridicule you, but you're doing it for the love of it. So I think that everybody could probably benefit from taking some type of a theater class or a public speaking or something like that and realizing that you're not gonna die. If you...

Shira (22:52.526)
Right.

Adrienne Garland (22:54.675)
I actually, I teach at NYU and I teach a entrepreneurship class and I always have my students get up and just talk about, you know, it's never really formal presentations. At the end it is, we do a pitch. But throughout the semester they read some articles and they do this little presentation on it and they get scared.

And I say, I don't care. It's just us. Practice here. Be a fool. Choke on your words. It doesn't matter. The fact that you're just getting up and doing it is practice. And I think that that's what women need to do. We need to practice the things that you're talking about. Because if we don't do them, we're never going to do them.

Shira (23:39.086)
Yeah, I agree. And you'll never know also, if you don't ask for something, you'll never know if you could have gotten it. You know, you just, you really don't know. We have this, I mean, this podcast is mostly women audience, I would think, right? We have this saying in our company, have the confidence of a mediocre white guy.

Adrienne Garland (23:40.851)
Yeah, so I.

Adrienne Garland (23:46.195)
Yeah. You don't know.

Adrienne Garland (24:01.459)
Yes, I've heard that before. Yes. Yeah.

Shira (24:05.23)
Yeah, you know, but it's true, you know, in venture capital, dudes raising money could write an idea on a napkin and they're like, here you go. Here's $300 million. You know, women, it's like, okay, can you show me how you're going to get there? You know, I don't know. It's just, we get a lot more scrutinized.

Adrienne Garland (24:13.459)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I've definitely, we do, we get scrutinized and I've read a lot about how men are given funding based on their potential and women are given money based on sort of like what they've accomplished to date. So it's, we're playing a different game. And I think we'd need to realize that we're playing a different game and maybe pull out some other strategies and relentlessness is definitely one of them.

Shira (24:38.158)
Right?

Adrienne Garland (24:48.115)
Plus knowing that you talked about pitching to investors all the time, talking to them. That's what everybody does. It's not just women that are talking to millions and millions of investors. I read something the other day. Gosh, I don't remember what it was for. I think it was for Airbnb or something. And they showed all of the rejection emails and things like that from venture capitalists about Airbnb. Travel is just not our thing.

You know, we're not doing this at this time. And so I think that that's something to keep in mind as well. There's rejection all around. It's not just women. Maybe we give up a little bit too soon because we get, you know, we get, we take it, we do. Yeah, yeah. I was trying to sort of not say that, but I do think that we take things a little bit too personally and we don't push through because it hurts, you know?

Shira (25:28.046)
Right.

Shira (25:31.79)
Take it personal.

Adrienne Garland (25:45.779)
And we've got a lot on our shoulders as women. But.

Shira (25:46.958)
Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, the other thing that I've heard is that, you know, if a man looks at a job description and I think if he qualifies for at least two out of the eight bullet points or whatever, he'll apply. But if a woman doesn't have one, she'll say, no, I can't do it. And actually, I have a little personal story, you know, on that note. Our first check -in was the Long Beach Accelerator. And one of my dear friends who was in the VC space sent me the application. She said, you should apply for this.

Adrienne Garland (26:02.707)
Yeah. No. Yeah.

Adrienne Garland (26:08.307)
Yeah.

Shira (26:17.454)
And I was just at the beginning of my journey trying to figure out how I was going to raise. And that first check is always the hardest one. And I looked at the website and something on there that I read made me think I didn't qualify. It was like something about needing to be a billion dollar industry. This is before we really fully worked out our strategy with our TAM. And we have this big vision to be the global destination to hire female freelancers in every industry, not just women. And a lot of people were telling me, it's niche, it's women, it's music, whatnot. So I read something that intimidated me on the website and I went back to her and I said,

I don't think I qualify. And you know what she said to me? She said, I'm sorry, is this Shiri Yevin who crashed the Warped Tour? Like she challenged me, you know? She said, I didn't think you'd let a little bullet point stop you from applying. I said, you know what, you're right. I applied and I got it. I took her out to Nobu. But anyhow, you know, it's like, you know, we need those people also in our lives that will cheerlead us and remind us who we are and what we can do. So yeah.

Adrienne Garland (26:52.435)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Adrienne Garland (26:59.507)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Adrienne Garland (27:13.747)
Yeah.

Shira (27:14.51)
I love that story. I think I'm going to be telling that in my TED talk, you know, because it's just, who knows where I would be if she hadn't challenged me, you know, like I might still be looking for the first check. I might have had to go and get a day job. Who knows, you know.

Adrienne Garland (27:17.875)
I think you need to. Yeah, I definitely think you need to.

Adrienne Garland (27:27.283)
And isn't it funny that, yeah, it's like, yeah, is that the same person? And I think that that's even the key to the story is like, yeah, it is the same person. It's the bold me and also the me that has been socialized to have 100 % of what I need to even attempt to go into a club that may not be made for me. But.

but fuck that, right? Like, fuck those bullet points. And I just, I love that story so much. There's something else that I heard yesterday that I was like, whoa. I listened into an amazing webinar just about getting paid to speak and what's required and all of that. From the incredible innovation women, Bobbi Carlton, I just love her so much, but there are these two women that are professional speakers, they get paid to speak.

Shira (27:59.214)
Right.

Adrienne Garland (28:25.555)
And they said very much the same thing, like you need to ask. Because there was a conversation that happened where the woman was looking to get paid to speak, and the client was saying, well, we don't have a budget for you. And she's like, well, what budget do you have? And she's like, we only have $10 ,000. I didn't want to offend you, because I know that you're a $20 ,000 speaker.

And it's like, wait a minute, 10 ,000 is not zero. 10 ,000 is significant, especially for somebody who is speaking for probably one day, one hour, a couple of hours. That's a significant amount of money. So if she did not ask, if she did not press, if she just took at face value what that person said, she would have never been paid that $10 ,000, which is significant. So all of these stories, I think we need to hear.

Shira (29:20.91)
Yeah.

Adrienne Garland (29:23.859)
And you know, I do think that we need to get comfortable being called bossy, being called a bitch, being called, you know, pushy, being called money hungry. Like, yeah, I am. Because if we don't have these resources, how the hell are we going to make any change? We're just not. So you have inspired me. I'm going to crash my own something or other. I don't know. Crash something. Yeah.

Shira (29:45.358)
Right.

haha

Good! Now do it!

Adrienne Garland (29:53.139)
And I think everybody out there should do it too.

Shira (29:57.774)
I love that. I challenge my team sometimes on a Zoom call. I had my 10th anniversary moving to LA recently and I was telling my team the story. At the time I was working for Pabst Blue Ribbon and I really wanted to move to LA and I flew myself out to LA to meet with the CMO who at the time was like my boss's boss's boss, who later became my boss. And everyone said, no, we need you in New York.

I had chutzpah, but I said I really want to move out. And he said, all right, you're an asset to the company. We're going to create a position for you. So I kind of challenged my team that day when I was telling the story. I said, everyone go out this week and ask for something you want. So yeah.

Adrienne Garland (30:41.811)
Yeah. Hey, let's put that out as a challenge to everybody listening here on the She Leads podcast. Like go out when you hear this episode and ask for something that you want that feels maybe a little bit out of reach. And it doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't need to be business. It could be personal. But ask for something because we need to build that muscle. And it needs to be.

Shira (31:05.774)
It could be asking for... Yeah, no, sorry, go ahead. I was just saying, it could be something very small. Like it could be going to the supermarket asking for the mint green tea, you know? It comes up in life all the time until you flex that muscle, you know? You exercise it, yeah.

Adrienne Garland (31:10.899)
There's a, yeah.

Adrienne Garland (31:17.523)
Exactly.

Adrienne Garland (31:23.443)
Yeah. And I would like to add to this little challenge. I think that women are good with asking for discounts. And I think that that's not the place to put this energy. I think we need to ask for more, not a discount on what exists. That's the challenge.

So let's put that out there. Yeah. So this episode is probably going to come out after you have been to New York Tech Week, which is coming up next week. So can you talk a little bit about what you're doing at New York Tech Week? Because I'm very interested.

Shira (31:50.062)
interesting.

Shira (32:08.302)
I'm so excited. So we're doing, this is the second time we're doing this event called Investor Roundtables. Last year we called it Women Writing Checks. This year I changed it to Women Who Wire. I love alliteration, but you know, it was fun. Everyone still calls it check writing. We're like, no one writes checks these days. We're all wiring. It's a round table of female investors. And this year we have partnered with two incredible...

Adrienne Garland (32:26.835)
I love it.

Shira (32:33.678)
nonprofit organizations, the Stella Foundation and IANA Foundation. And Stella is producing their own panel called Fearless Funding Strategies for Women. We have an incredible lineup of speakers. I'm so excited to be hosting this at our Investor's Office Live Nation. It's on Tuesday, June 4th. Yes, this will probably be out after that, but we'll definitely be releasing videos and content. So make sure you check the gritty and pink socials for that.

And it's going to be really special. And I'm very grateful to everyone who's come together for this event. We have incredible partners and New York Tech Week is always fun.

Adrienne Garland (33:09.587)
I have never been and I'm coming to this event and I am so excited to be there. I'm also going to be in New York City next week looking at venues for my She Leads Live conference, which is happening in October. So it's all coming together and it's just going to be a great week. And the weather here is actually finally nice because it has been cold and rainy, although it does rain almost every day here. I don't know if you've heard from your New York friends, but the weather has been awful.

Shira (33:24.142)
Exciting.

Adrienne Garland (33:39.347)
But I cannot wait to, yeah, yeah, it will, it will. You'll bring the LA sunshine into New York. But I just wanna thank you so much, Shira, for this amazing conversation, for inspiring us and also putting this challenge out to the She Leads podcast audience. And listen, I would love to hear from you if you're listening in. What did you go out and do? What were you bold?

Shira (33:40.526)
no. I hope it'll clear up for next week.

Shira (33:47.854)
Hehehe.

Adrienne Garland (34:06.995)
about asking for and not a discount. So just thank you so very much and I look forward to meeting you next week in person. And just how can people sort of get involved? How can they get in touch with you? What does that look like?

Shira (34:11.374)
Hehehe

Shira (34:23.406)
Yeah. Well, first of all, inpink .com, anyone can go sign up, basically adds it to our email list. You're able to browse and message the talent. If you are a female freelancer, not only working in any aspect of the music industry, but really any aspect of creative or event industries, yes, we have music and audio and live talent, but we also have business, graphics, marketing, and local services like photo and video. So for women in non -binary talent, please feel free to sign up and submit a listing. It's free. We don't take a cut of what you earn.

in pink .com and again anyone can sign up. We also have social media presence of course so Gritty and Pink Life on Instagram. I'd say that's kind of our most fun active channel. Of course on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, we're on all the things. So make sure to follow us there. On Twitter it's Gritty and Pink Life, the letter N because you can't have like more than 15 characters or something. But yeah, we're on TikTok, Gritty and Pink, YouTube, Gritty and Pink.

Adrienne Garland (35:17.427)
Hahaha.

Shira (35:22.126)
Facebook and Instagram is GRITTY IN PINK LIFE. And yeah, please, you know, tune in and check out the content and give us a follow. We're actually really excited. We just hit 10 ,000 followers on Instagram, completely organically, no advertising, no purchase followers. So very proud of that. You know, a lot of blood, sweat and tears. And you can also follow my personal on Instagram, shira underscore girl, and I'm also shiragirl on a lot of the socials. So yeah, we'd love to have everyone join the community.

Adrienne Garland (35:38.931)
That's incredible.

Adrienne Garland (35:49.203)
my gosh, I just love this so, so much. And let me ask, are you on, you know, Pandora and all of those? Yeah, so sure. Spotify.

Shira (35:57.998)
Yeah, my band Cheer Girl is on Spotify. We're going to have some new music coming out later this year. You know, Apple music, all the digital platforms. Our most recent release was last year. We released a song called Rites Back Right Now about the overturn of Roe v. Wade, which is, you know, a topic that's near and dear to my heart. And Gritty and Pink actually did an emergency protest concert 24 hours after we found out that Roe v. Wade was overturned. We marched down.

to the LA courthouse and did a flatbed truck concert. So this song was written about that. And so yeah, please go ahead and check out my music, Sheeragirl. It's one word, S -H -I -R -A -G -I -R -L. And would love support on that front as well. And in fact, we will actually, this is not yet announced, but you know what? I'll go ahead and put it out there. I don't know when this podcast is coming out, but we're gonna be playing the Brooklyn Paramount, July 12th, opening up for no effects. Yeah, so.

Adrienne Garland (36:54.611)
God.

Shira (36:55.886)
That's gonna be an amazing show and I'm really excited about that venue. It just got refurbished and reopened and it's kind of a big deal. So yeah, definitely look out for some gigs coming your way. And last thing I'll say, this is kind of fun, but I have a little side project called She Blime. It's an all female tribute to sublime. It's super fun. We're playing the Surf Rodeo Festival in Ventura on July 5th, right on the beach. So if anyone's on the West Coast, come check us out. That's always a really fun festival.

Adrienne Garland (37:07.987)
Awesome.

Adrienne Garland (37:19.571)
Ugh. my god, that sounds so cool. I would love to be there. I won't be able to be there, but my god, that sounds so amazing. Everything that this whole conversation has been amazing. And I just appreciate you spending your time with me here today and just getting to know you. It's been wonderful.

Shira (37:40.654)
Thank you so much, Adrienne. It was really fun for me too.