How (Not) to Ask for Permission (w/ Polina Ruvinsky, CEO & Founder - Hype Her)

When Polina Ruvinsky stepped into a leadership role at Disney, she was told to not ask for permission.

In 2018, she formed a women and tech employee group at the company. What started as a kind of experiment turned into a tight-knit community, allowing women at the company to come together, brainstorm, and offer support. The ripple effect of Polina’s community can still be felt: the group is now designated as a Business Employee Resource Group, or BERG, one of 100 BERGs across Disney today.

In 2022, she founded To The SHE Power to offer mentorship, coaching and career services to women in transition. And now, she’s working to launch Hype Her, a platform to revolutionize how women gain visibility and support each other, while uplifting each other and having fun while doing it.  

Polina shares how she gave herself permission to create new opportunities for women leaders, how she learned to trust her gut, and how she dealt with what she calls “egregious leadership decisions” during her corporate career. 

Polina talks about:

• Dealing with bias and imposter syndrome
• How she learned to not ask for permission
• How she formed a close-knit community at Disney
• Why she never thought she would become an entrepreneur
• The "egregious leadership decisions" she experienced in corporate 

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Hosted by Katherin Vasilopoulos. Made by Cansulta and Ethan Lee.
Music by © Correspondence and © Chris Zabriskie, published by You've Been a Wonderful Laugh Track (ASCAP). 

Songs used in this episode include: 

• Chris Zabriskie - "Air Hockey Saloon," "There Are Days That I Don't," "What True Self? Feels Bogus, Let's Watch Jason X," "Short Song 020523,"  "We Always Thought the Future Would Be Kind of Fun."
• Correspondence - "Harp Routine." 

Used under the Creative Commons 4.0 International License