Lifestyle Creator Karly Polkosnik Talks Growing 6-Figure Career, Award-Winning ‘Hey Bitches’ Podcast & More

May 3, 2023

Karly Polkosnik is a business law school student turned micro-creator, turning a social media side hustle into a six-figure career.

As a woman of color and a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, Karly educates her 518, 535k followers (88.2% female) on self-love, black beauty, sexuality, as well as financial transparency, taxes, organization, and personal finances solidifying herself as the internet’s go-to girl for authentic, relatable, and reliable advice & content.

Navigating your 20s doesn’t have to be this hard & Polkosnik is the creator who’s making education life hacks, money tips, and more accessible, digestible, and relatable. Among other endeavors, Karly runs her lifestyle brand, Your Girl Karly, which encapsulates her social media career on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube as well as her additional auxiliary brand Hey Bitches Podcast, a top 5, 3x award-nominated sexuality and lifestyle podcast.

Get to know Karly as she talks about evolving into her six-figure career, podcast, and the things in life that inspire her most.

Where are you from?

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

How did you turn your social media side hustle into a six-figure career?

I actually was almost forced into it. I lost my job in January 2020, decided I wanted to go full-time as an influencer in February 2020, and in March 2020 the world shut down and made that choice for me. I had a lot of time on my hands and recognized that moment as one that was given to me to make it happen. I jumped and made it happen and never looked back.

Social media is the widest-used method of information sharing and communication, do you think that this will change or only evolve?

I don’t think that will change but I for sure think it will evolve. We have so many forms of communication that I can’t even think of where we’re realistically slacking/have gaps. Until we’re inventing things like teleportation or holographic messages, I don’t think there’s anything that will top social media as the widest method of information sharing and communication.

What message are you sending to your social media followers?

The biggest message I always want to send to my followers is that you can achieve anything and everything you are truly looking at achieving in your life. I want my story of having been fired to being a full-time influencer to show people that you can achieve your dreams even in unlikely situations. I’ve shown my followers my life from when I first started my online career, all the messy parts in between, and now the more or less “successful” part of where I am today. I want people to look at me and my online presence and feel inspired and invigorated to go and chase after their own dreams too.

What was the inspiration for the development of Hey Bitches Podcast?

Hey Bitches actually started out as a place I could “secretly” vent about my breakup and relationship issues. It ended up taking off and has been constantly changing and evolving for the past 4 years. For the majority of its time, Hey Bitches was all about my craziest dating stories, sex and dating tips, and more. It also followed me on my journey with healing my relationship trauma, what healthy dating and relationships look like, as well as coming out as a lesbian.

What was one thing you did that exceeded your expectations when you began developing your podcast?

I honestly think that the podcast just taking off, in general, exceeded my expectations. As I said, I started it off simply as a place to vent. But flash forward 4 years later, and it’s been nominated for awards, is a chart-topping podcast, and is constantly evolving and changing.

Out of all the topics you cover on Hey Bitches Podcast, is there a specific topic that you think is most important to highlight?

In the past, my favorite topics to highlight were dating and relationships and how I was growing out of my old, harmful dating patterns. I listen back to those episodes and it’s really cool to hear the progress as I continued through things like therapy and self-healing. I think at the time, a lot of podcasts were really focused on crazy hookups and sex stories and I really enjoyed having a space where I could share stories of my own but also showcase that you can heal and grow and take responsibility for some of those crazy stories/experiences.

What does success mean to you? What are your rules for success?

Success to me means being able to live the life that I’ve dreamed up in my head every single day. I know I am personally successful because I get to wake up every morning and live the life I want to and that I created and I am very grateful for that. As my career continues and I grow up, the vision for my life changes and I love being able to work towards that next success step every single day.

While I don’t have hard and fast rules for success, I do think that the biggest rules are being happy and finding something you love. Success differs from person to person but I feel like when you are happy in whatever moment you find yourself in and you’ve found that something that you love then it feels like success.

The Fox Magazine is all about inspiration, what or who inspires you the most?

I always say the future Karly in my head inspires me the most. I’ve always had a very clear vision for what I want my life to look like and my friends constantly joke about how I could think of something for 5 seconds and it could turn up in my life the next day. For me, I almost feel like the future version of myself that I see in my head is really the path that I am headed on and I know that if I continue the way that I am, I am going to get there. Because of that, the future version of me and my future dream life is for sure the things that inspire me the most.

What’s something people would be surprised to learn about you?

Recently, I think it would be that I just came out as a lesbian (lol). So much of my public dating content and history has all been centered around my straight relationships but in May of 2022 I came to the realization that I was gay. While it’s not entirely a shocking revelation, I think that if you hadn’t seen my content for a while you’d probably be surprised to find that out.

What is your favorite or original innovation-related motto, quote, or words to live by?