The notion of categorizing people by their profession seems very odd when you talk to best mates and business partners Chloe Popove and Nicolle Hodges.
The tired question: “So what do you do?” will produce a list as long as a four-year-old’s letter to Santa. The pair are the perfect examples of that very Millennial phenomenon: the portfolio career, in which people have multiple part-time jobs that feed off and complement each other, arguably leading to a more fulfilling and fun professional life.
Chloe is the founder of much-missed consignment store My Modern Closet and a branding consultant for companies like Nectar Juicery. Nicolle is a freelance print and broadcast journalist for everyone from Daily Hive to CTV, a PR consultant and social media influencer. The two are originally from the Fraser Valley and became friends in 2014.
Then last March, everything changed. “We decided to set life as we knew it on fire: ending long-term relationships, leaving our current jobs, moving out of our apartments, and even leaving Vancouver for Toronto – all for the chance to feel alive and create something we really care about,” they say.
What they’ve created is a new business – a multimedia consultancy and online publication that brings together all their different skills and experiences under the name Girls Who Say Fuck (GWSF).
How did it come about? “Chloe and I were out for a beer and she said something about ‘Girls Who Say Fuck,’ and my first reaction was... What is that?!” says Nicolle.
“I was instantly intrigued. She said, ‘it’s us.’ We wanted a platform where we could write about the topics that we care about, partner with companies that are challenging the status quo, and – selfishly – create something that would give us the lives we want.”
The company has just launched and will produce everything from podcasts and video to merchandise, and offer services like PR, branding and consultancy. There’ll even be “fire us” training – programmes where Chloe and Nicolle will teach you everything they know.
“We’ve definitely both done a bunch of different things, which at the time seemed like a bunch of misplaced pieces that were coming together in a puzzle we couldn’t yet see.
“Now, it all makes sense. Everything we’ve both done had led us to where we are now with the appropriate skills,” says Chloe.
Their friendship is a cornerstone in their lives – they share an apartment and spend almost all their time together.
“This kind of close friendship is one we often take for granted until it vanishes, or we never find it at all. People for whom you reserve a spot at the centre of your heart. They fill a gap between how you feel about the world and how you feel about yourself,” they say.
“To think romantic love is the only bond this profound feels like an oversimplification. Friendship is a fundamental part of life, and beautifully so.”
Did they have any concerns about working together? Absolutely not.
“It’s been fucking awesome,” says Chloe – there have been none of the fall-outs and tension that people predict when friends go into business together.
And, says Nicolle, “Through it all, our friendship made us feel like we could do anything; that we could wholeheartedly and unapologetically live the life we want, and be accepted for who we are. We want to be an example that when women come together, they’re unstoppable.”
Follow GWSF on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @girlswhosayf-ck, or email info@girlswhosayfuck.com.
