I recently spoke with Erin Gallagher, CEO and founder of Ella, an inclusive network of unlocking women’s access to human and financial capital. In this conversation, we talked about her viral #hypewoman post, a photo in which Jamie Lee Curtis was hyping her co-star, Michelle Yeoh, the moment Michelle Yeoh won Best Actress for her role in Everything Everywhere All at Once. Without context, it might have looked like Jamie Lee Curtis won an award, but the truth was, she was hyping up someone else’s win.
Why did this post go viral? Probably because women have been conditioned to see each other as threats and to view another woman’s success as a detraction from our own. I then talked to Erin about my own life and how I hate talking about myself or my business, even though my husband has no problem sharing my business card with other people. This led to a conversation about being a woman who hypers herself up, and Erin challenged me by asking me why it was so difficult for me to share about my business with people I love. She encouraged me to decondition my own thinking and reframe my own narrative as a businesswoman.
Erin dropped a lot of wisdom that is hard to share in a single blog post, but it was a meaningful conversation that had a great impact on me. Click here to find the entire episode or look for Episode 77 on the Marketing in the Wild Podcast wherever you tune into your favorite podcasts.
P.S. I want to acknowledge that, after recording the episode with Erin, I learned that the Jamie Lee Curtis Hype Woman meme was hurtful to many women, especially in the Asian women community, because Jamie Lee Curtis’ hype seemed to overshadow Michelle Yeoh’s historical accomplishment and much-deserved win. I want to acknowledge that although the Hype Women movement is important, the concept of a hype woman getting more credit than the woman who deserves the hype is also problematic, especially because of the racial dynamics.
About the Author
Julia Block is the CEO of Stratos Creative Marketing, helping business owners make sure their marketing strategies all work together to produce results and revenue.
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