“Just do it.” That’s the advice business powerhouses Bianca Gates and Haley Sacks gave to a room filled with female entrepreneurs and career women in New York on Thursday night.
Gates, who is the co-founder of shoe brand Birdies, and Sacks — also known as “Mrs. Dow Jones” on Instagram and runs Finance Is Cool, a financial literacy platform — came together to talk business, success and turning dreams into a reality.
“I truly believe that if you run towards your fear, that’s where the best stuff comes from,” Sacks told the crowd.
With nearly 300,000 Instagram followers and 200,000 on TikTok, Sacks has become the go-to finance influencer for millennial and Gen Zers looking to become financially literate as she uses humor and pop culture to democratize the world of finance.
And while fashion and finance may seem worlds apart, for a company like Birdies, connecting with consumers and using its platform to uplift all women to succeed no matter the career path, has been key to success, which is why they partnered with Sacks for its “What Are You Running?” fall campaign.
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During the talk, both women discussed turning their side hustles into full-fledged businesses. Because like many, their success didn’t happen overnight. Gates was working at Facebook when she first launched Birdies in 2015 and Sacks was working in comedy and entertainment before launching her platform in 2017.
Their tips? Sacks suggested having three to six months of expenses fully saved up before taking that leap.
Gates, meanwhile, said not be afraid to fail.
“Fail faster or fail harder. I mean, every day I’m failing. To be successful at whatever you want to do it’s not all linear, going up and up. It’s a lot of hard work,” she explained. “Whatever your vision is, once you execute and get it out there, it’s not going to be exactly how you envisioned it in your head and from there, you can kind of move and grow. But you can’t even grow if it’s not out there.”
Sacks added, “I just really believe in individual people and like their grit, determination to make things happen for themselves. I don’t believe there are any shortcuts. I feel like you really just have to show up every day. And you have to know yourself that it’s not easy, and it’s hard, but there’s no one else that is going to do it for you.”
