If there's something we all need, it's community. Like many university grads, when Istiana Bestari first moved to Toronto to start her career, she needed to find a way to network, build connections, and find opportunities.
Her and her business partner Rachel came up with the idea of creating a small female-only group that would host intimate events and connect working women. Fast forward to 2021, Monday Girl has managed to put on large events featuring keynote speakers with high-profile positions at major companies like Netflix, Uber, and Shopify.
Now, they've recently launched a digital community called Social Club for women everywhere to receive the best career advice and networking opportunities with the click of a button. We had the chance to (virtually) sit down with Istiana and ask her about Monday Girl and their new platform Social Club.
1. Can you tell us a bit about yourself, what you do, and what Monday Girl is?
Monday Girl is a community built for young professional women across Canada to change the way women build their careers. We send out a weekly Monday morning newsletter with career tips, we have a job board, digital events, and a membership platform called Social Club where building your network and finding a mentor is actually fun and accessible.
Monday Girl is a community built for young professional women across Canada to change the way women build their careers. We send out a weekly Monday morning newsletter with career tips, we have a job board, digital events, and a membership platform called Social Club where building your network and finding a mentor is actually fun and accessible.
My partner, Rachel Wong, and I Co-Founded Monday Girl. She heads our business strategy, sales and partnership, finances and I lead our marketing, branding, content, and operations.
2. What made you want to start Monday girl?
Traditional networking sucks. Point blank and especially for women. When we first moved to Toronto after graduating a few years ago, finding the right events and the right people to connect with was really hard. Most of us can relate to feeling super uncomfortable and awkward at those slimy, male-dominated, business card type networking events and it just wasn't working for us. We've had hundreds of our members tell us they feel the same way so Monday Girl has overhauled the way you can build your network, connect with like-minded women and grow your career in a new way that's exciting and empowering.
Traditional networking sucks. Point blank and especially for women. When we first moved to Toronto after graduating a few years ago, finding the right events and the right people to connect with was really hard. Most of us can relate to feeling super uncomfortable and awkward at those slimy, male-dominated, business card type networking events and it just wasn't working for us. We've had hundreds of our members tell us they feel the same way so Monday Girl has overhauled the way you can build your network, connect with like-minded women and grow your career in a new way that's exciting and empowering.
3. How has Monday Girl evolved over the years?
We had our first brunch in 2017 and when 50+ women showed up, we knew we were onto something. Over the years we've hosted 18+ sold-out events in Toronto, with some of our largest hosting 250+ guests. It was all about creating exciting opportunities to meet new people and learn from leading industry women that also look like you. Post-pandemic we pivoted everything entirely to digital with our newsletter, digital events, and now Social Club!
4. What are two major learning moments that stand out since you started Monday Girl?
We've learned so many lessons along the way because none of us had any experience in event planning or anything to do with running a business. We've learned where to spend our time and where it's not worth our investments. We've also always treated our community as our north star and continuously ask ourselves what are their needs right now? What would be most valuable to them? How can we improve their lives even just a little bit? That mentality helps us make better decisions and inform how we need to adapt and pivot our offerings, marketing, branding, and everything else.
We've learned so many lessons along the way because none of us had any experience in event planning or anything to do with running a business. We've learned where to spend our time and where it's not worth our investments. We've also always treated our community as our north star and continuously ask ourselves what are their needs right now? What would be most valuable to them? How can we improve their lives even just a little bit? That mentality helps us make better decisions and inform how we need to adapt and pivot our offerings, marketing, branding, and everything else.
5. Can you tell us about Social Club? What is it and how does someone become a member?
Social Club is a new way to build your network and career. It's a private annual membership that gives you the tools and connections you need to launch and grow your career including access to monthly mentorship events with industry icons, resume reviews, digital courses, a resource library, networking opportunities and more. Right now there's a waitlist so you can sign up with your email at mondaygirl.ca/socialclub to be the first to get notified when Social Club is open again!
Social Club is a new way to build your network and career. It's a private annual membership that gives you the tools and connections you need to launch and grow your career including access to monthly mentorship events with industry icons, resume reviews, digital courses, a resource library, networking opportunities and more. Right now there's a waitlist so you can sign up with your email at mondaygirl.ca/socialclub to be the first to get notified when Social Club is open again!
6. What is your biggest advice for someone that feels stuck in their career?
I think it's hard to see outside of your own everyday world sometimes so to expand your horizons a bit and see what else is out there, you should research and reach out to people whose careers interest you. Ask them what their everyday looks like, what they love about their job or don't love, how they got there, what skills they needed, etc. I also recommend tracking the types of tasks or projects that fuel your energy and excite you as well as the things that totally drain you. Doing this exercise can help you figure out what kinds of things you actually like doing and then take that and look for roles/career paths that match the types of things on your energy fueler's list.
I think it's hard to see outside of your own everyday world sometimes so to expand your horizons a bit and see what else is out there, you should research and reach out to people whose careers interest you. Ask them what their everyday looks like, what they love about their job or don't love, how they got there, what skills they needed, etc. I also recommend tracking the types of tasks or projects that fuel your energy and excite you as well as the things that totally drain you. Doing this exercise can help you figure out what kinds of things you actually like doing and then take that and look for roles/career paths that match the types of things on your energy fueler's list.
7. What's the best piece of interview advice you've ever been given?
Walk into the interview and completely believe that you don't actually need this job at all and have absolutely nothing to lose. This sounds nearly impossible especially if you actually do really need a job, but having this mindset makes it way easier to be confident and show up as your best self. You won't come off as nervous or desperate and it's easier to treat the interview as a regular conversation with another human being. You're also more likely to ask them the right questions to figure out, wait, is this company a good fit for ME versus am I a good fit for THEM? So do some affirmations and build the mindset that you don't actually need the job because if you don't get it, there are so many other opportunities out there for you and this one just wasn't the right one.
Walk into the interview and completely believe that you don't actually need this job at all and have absolutely nothing to lose. This sounds nearly impossible especially if you actually do really need a job, but having this mindset makes it way easier to be confident and show up as your best self. You won't come off as nervous or desperate and it's easier to treat the interview as a regular conversation with another human being. You're also more likely to ask them the right questions to figure out, wait, is this company a good fit for ME versus am I a good fit for THEM? So do some affirmations and build the mindset that you don't actually need the job because if you don't get it, there are so many other opportunities out there for you and this one just wasn't the right one.
8. Tell us about your most embarrassing career moment.
By far the worst for me was when I introduced myself to a model as if we had never met exactly one week after doing an entire photoshoot with her. We had already met and worked together and my brain somehow just forgot in that moment. I think she was probably super confused and offended and I felt mortified.
