Izzi Friedman: She Got Blacklisted from Every Sorority at Ohio State. A Few Years Later, She Built the Kind of Community She Couldn't Get Into
Izzi Friedman went through rush at Ohio State expecting it to work out. It didn't. Not one bid, from any of them. What followed was an insecurity spiral she didn't see coming. She was settling for the wrong things, surrounding herself with the wrong people, quietly wondering what was wrong with her.
After college, she figured the dynamic would change. It didn't. She started going to influencer events and found the same cold, unwelcoming energy she had been trying to escape. These were the girls with the microphones. The ones younger women were looking up to. And they weren't talking about anything real.
Something snapped. She threw her first event, put every person and brand she loved in one room, and Girls Girls Club was born. The energy was so electric she knew she had to give every girl that feeling.
But here's the part nobody talks about: Girls Girls Club isn't what pays her. Her social media agency, Socialize, is. And everything Socialize generates, she pours back into the community she's building.
We sat down with Izzi to talk about the financial structure behind building something before it makes money, what the sorority rejection actually did to her, and why the thing everyone recognizes her for isn't the thing keeping the lights on.
You're running Girls Girls Club, operating Socialize as a social media agency, and doing brand partnerships as a creator. What does a normal week actually look like?
Honestly, there's no such thing as a normal week, but there is a rhythm. I try to batch my content creation days so I can protect the other days for agency work and Girls Girls Club. Socialize takes up a lot of the behind-the-scenes time that people don't see: client calls, strategy, and deliverables. And then Girls Girls Club lives in the in-between moments, community management, planning events, and partnerships.
Most weeks, I'm wearing all three hats in a single day. It's a lot, but I think it's actually made me better at each of them because they feed into each other.
Take us back to the sorority rejection. What do you actually remember about that period?
It was really, really tough. I thought I had it all figured out. I thought it would work out, and when it didn't, I felt so alone in it. I didn't know anyone who had been through the same thing. Everyone around me had always had it work out, so I was sitting there thinking, what the f*ck is wrong with me?
It sent me into a really big insecurity spiral. I started settling for things I didn't want. I was surrounding myself with the wrong people because that bad energy was radiating off me and attracting more of the same.
But what I want people to know is that at the end of it, I didn't want to attack the system. I wanted to rebuild a new one. Somewhere no girl would ever have to feel the way I did. So I built my own.
When did that experience start turning into the actual idea behind Girls Girls Club?
It didn't click right away. After college I started working corporate and going to influencer events, and I kept thinking, okay, now the girls are going to be nice. But I kept seeing the same thing. Girls being awful to one another in the workplace, then going to influencer events and finding the same energy. And I remember thinking: these are the girls with the microphones. These are the women younger girls are looking up to, and they're cold, they're unwelcoming, and they're not talking about anything real.
Something just snapped. I thought: what if I put all the beautiful people I know and all the beautiful brands I know in one good room?
I organized my first event for other women looking for a community. I didn't know it at the time, but I was building Girls Girls Club. The energy in that room, I could bottle it. Imagine walking into a space where everyone there wants to get to know you just as much as you want to get to know them. I knew I needed to give every single girl that feeling.
What does the financial reality of all of this actually look like? How does money flow across Girls Girls Club, Socialize, and your brand partnerships?
The agency is my most lucrative stream. That's my nine-to-five, and it's what gives me the financial foundation to pour into everything else. I'm still living at home with my parents, figuring out where I even want to move next. Socialize gives me the luxury to figure that out while building something bigger than myself.
Everything it generates, I pour back into Girls Girls Club because I see it as part of something greater. The thing people recognize me for isn't the thing paying me. And I think that's actually the structure more people need to understand.
How do you actually make the Girls Girls Club events work financially?
I won't put on an event unless I profit. That's the rule.
The model is brand partnerships plus ticket sales. I negotiate with brands on their rate, and once we agree, I add 20% on top. Events cost a lot to produce, and there's a real ceiling on how many people you can fit in a room, which means you can only reach as many people as are physically there. So the margins have to work. Every single time.
That discipline is also what protects the mission. If I'm running events at a loss, I'm compromising Girls Girls Club just to keep the lights on. The whole point is that the community should never feel transactional for the people in it, which means the business side has to be airtight behind the scenes.
You've talked about what you call the Engine and the Mission. Can you break that down?
The Engine is the income stream that funds everything else. Mine is Socialize.
The Mission is the thing you're actually building. Mine is Girls Girls Club.
The Rule is: build your life around the Engine so you never have to compromise the Mission.
That's the whole equation. When you have an Engine, you get to build the Mission without pressure, without rushing it, without compromising what it's supposed to be just because you need it to pay you before it's ready. A lot of people are running their Mission on fumes because they never built an Engine first. And the Mission suffers for it.
Have you ever caught yourself comparing your progress or income to other creators or founders?
Yes, and I think anyone who says otherwise isn't being honest. I always say: I can't create and consume on the same day. It ruins my whole flow. The moment I'm scrolling while I'm supposed to be building, I can feel myself shrinking.
My whole message is that we're not supposed to compete or compare. We're supposed to continually inspire one another and create beautiful things in the world. But living that isn't always easy. Every time we go online, it can shorten what we believe we're capable of if we're not careful. That's why curating your feed matters so much. Surround yourself with people who inspire you, not people who make you feel like less.
If a college student is thinking about building a community or platform around something they care about, what's one thing they should look at honestly before jumping in?
Social media should be a form of creative expression, full stop. Do it out of love. Do it because you want to make the world a better place, not because you want people to tell you you're pretty.
When you release the attachment to numbers and results, that's actually when they start happening. The moment you stop creating from a place of needing validation and start creating from a place of genuine love, everything shifts. That's true in business, in community building, in life.
Follow Izzi ✨
Still living at home. Still pouring everything into something that isn't paying her back yet. Still building Girls Girls Club into the community she wished had existed for her in college.
Follow Izzi:
Instagram: @izzifriedman
TikTok: @izzifriedmann
Girls Girls Club: @girlsgirlsclubnyc
Socialize: @socializebyizzi
