From Actuary to Artist: Artist Wendy Kriz Evans on Creative Reinvention and Taking Up Space

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>> Wo0: Welcome to don't fucking Tell Me what to Wear or

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How to run My Business. This is

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the Woo Pod.

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>> Wo0: Always anticipating something happening. Must be

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knackering.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Yeah, it's exhausting. And when that weight was lifted, I suddenly

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realised I just have all this energy and

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time now for myself.

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>> Wo0: I'm your host, Wendy Gannon, but most.

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>> Wo0: People call me Woo.

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>> Wo0: I'm a photographer, adhder, female advocate,

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and let's be honest, an all around fucking legend.

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Can you tell I didn't write this script?

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This podcast is part of Female5Million, a

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movement founded to empower women to step the fuck up,

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take control and unapologetically own their

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space. It all started

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with some fucking Jebbins LinkedIn post

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spouting some sexist bullshit about how women should dress

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to succeed in business. And you know what?

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Stuff like that really fucks me

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off.

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>> Wo0: It really fucks me off.

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>> Wo0: So I posted about it and that post ignited something

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bigger. a nationwide photography project, a full blown

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fucking movement. And now this podcast

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here on the Woo Pod, we're raising the voices of women who refuse

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to be told what to do. Women who are done playing by the

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rules and are now saying, don't fucking tell me what to wear or how

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to run my business. If you've ever been told to tone it

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down, dress more appropriately or, or run your business

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like a man, fuck that.

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Expect raw, unfiltered conversations with women who

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have fought through sexism, abuse and

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outdated patriarchal bullshit to build success on their

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terms. all whilst wearing whatever the fuck they want.

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Oh, and there's more swearing than our producer is willing to

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beep out. Sorry, buckers. Speaking of

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which, you'll probably hear me ask producer Bacchus to chime

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in from time to time, because like a give.

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>> Wo0: A what she says.

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>> Wo0: We've both got adhd. We bounce well off each other.

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>> Wo0: Deal with it.

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>> Wo0: We're here to celebrate women doing business their way and shine a

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spotlight on the incredible ways women are fighting back and lifting

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each other up. Because to be honest, that's what it's all about.

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And, for those who aren't able to speak up right now, for

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whatever reason. I see you.

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Okay, let's crack on then.

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Hi, everybody.

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>> Wo0: Welcome back to the, Tell Me what to

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Wear or How to Run My Business podcast.

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And this episode, I'm so, so

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happy to introduce Wendy Chris Evans.

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Hi, Wendy.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Hi, Wendy.

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>> Wo0: You don't get to do that much, do we?

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: No.

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>> Wo0: How are you? Thank you so much for coming on.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Yeah, I'm good. I'm really good now.

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I've had a horrible menopause week until now,

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but now I'm feeling really good, so we're all, all

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bearing to go again.

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>> Wo0: I don't really get horrible menopause weeks.

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Mine's pretty, like, stable.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: M. I think stable in a

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good way. Like, you're. You're feeling good.

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>> Wo0: I mean, like always super hot. Like, I'm

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like. I'm like, what's the temperature? I am

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sweating 8°. I'm so

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hot and I've got no eating on. But,

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yeah, the lives we live, huh?

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Wendy, can you, give yourself an introduction,

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let us know what you do, both

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of the things that you. All of the things that you do.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: So, I have two careers. I'm an actuary and

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an artist. So I've been an actuary

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for 25 years now. and

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I work for a company called lcp. We're an

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actor barrel consultancy. I worked

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all over the London market in Lloyds,

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with syndicates and with other insurers.

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And recently, as in this

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year, I decided that I wanted to be an

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artist because that was something I'd always wanted to

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do. but I sort of made

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a decision when I was about 18 that, it

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was one or the other. and I

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thought, well, you know, I can teach myself art and,

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I can't really teach myself maths as easily. So I

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thought I'll go and do maths at university and then I'll do a

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bit of art in my spare time. And

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sort of didn't. Yeah, of course

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there was one. One year we had a Christmas competition

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to, to draw someone. like, block. You

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had. You were given someone and you had to draw them. And I won because I

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did the best drawing because, you know, I can draw.

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But, that's. Things like that. And everyone was like, oh,

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we didn't even know you could draw. I was like, well,

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no, I don't do it very often. So most people don't

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know.

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>> Wo0: Oh, bless you. So can you just, like,

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really, as briefly as possible, let us know what an actuary

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is?

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>> Wo0: I know because I used to do.

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>> Wo0: Actuarial recruitment, but Producer

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Buckers is before we came on. She's like, what is an actuary? And I

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gave a very high level.

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>> Buckers: Not a Scooby. What is that?

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>> Wo0: and. And I don't. And I know it took me a

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long time to work out actually what it was in London Market

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and Lloyds. So if you wouldn't mind just giving us A brief

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overview.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Okay, so, in summary, we assess risk.

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So we assess financial risk. So that could be,

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you know, what is the chance of a,

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huge hurricane happening and how much is that going to cost?

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And we look at things like extreme things

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happening. So, the

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pandemic is a good example of an extreme event.

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and there's actually a lot of controversy about

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should insurers pay for that, or it wasn't actually

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in the policies, but should it have been?

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So, things like that. It's up to us as

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actuaries to assess how likely it is

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that these claims are going to happen. And we're basically there

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to make sure that insurance companies can

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pay their claims. So even

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if something really bad happens, they've got enough money in the bank that they

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can pay out for the claims that happen.

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>> Wo0: Thank you very much. And then you, mentioned

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that you, worked law in

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Lloyds and.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: You.

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>> Wo0: Were part of the Lloyd's exhibition. Your art was in the

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exhibition, last year, and

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I came to see it. It was wonderful.

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Tell us a little bit about that.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: So what I loved about that was how it brought

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my two careers together. So there's a

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Lloyds Art Group and it's a group of about

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100 artists, who all have a connection

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to the Lloyds market in some way. So for me,

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it's, a fairly obvious connection. I work in the market, I work

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with syndicates, I work with Lloyds. but some people are

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actually professional artists whose

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husband or wife might work for a syndicate

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or they could. It doesn't have to be,

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quite as exact as that. So some people have got, like, three

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cousins who happen to work in the market and

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they're a professional artist. So then they're, able to join as well.

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So you have to have some kind of connection to the Lloyds Market.

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And then you're allowed to submit, three

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paintings to the exhibition. And it's in the

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Lloyd's, old library. So this is. This build.

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This room was moved, piece by

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piece from the old building. And it's

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this very, traditional wooden,

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old Boys Club,

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Gentleman's Club building, room, basically. And

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it's wood everywhere and there's like, all these meanings

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and there's semaphore signs everywhere and

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different, What are they called? I can't remember. The

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thing that every profession has a, Has a

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crest or something. And I think they're all

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over as well. So it's full of meaning

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and tradition and history. so.

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And having it Filled with art is amazing

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to see all this incredible bright colours

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and different styles of art.

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and I loved talking to people that like

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insurance and art.

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>> Wo0: Yeah.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Because they're both quite specialist. You don't often meet people

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that are into the same things as you.

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>> Wo0: Like.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: My two favourite things. Most people think insurance

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is really boring, but I find it fascinating. So

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it's great to meet other people that also find insurance fascinating.

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>> Wo0: But like art as well, I love that

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very niche.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: I used it, I really, really used the, the

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opportunity to expand both of

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my careers. So I spoke to people, I went

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to every event that they had. I helped out on the desk.

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I was there all the time. I happened to be working in the

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Lloyds Building one day that it was on, so I was down there

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constantly, chatting to people, chatting to.

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Making new connections for my actuarial side of

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things and then making new connections through art.

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So, I've actually had a, meeting with somebody last week

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who I met at the, event. And he and I are

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hopefully going to work together. We think our two companies

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can complement each other. and so, yeah, he has this

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amazing software which actually haven't been involved

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in so far. And I, I said, oh, I think, you know, you,

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you could make that software, talk to this other

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software and, yeah, with some services

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and, you know, we're at very early stages, but, yeah, it

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was, it was brilliant. And he's an artist as well.

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>> Wo0: Love this, Love it. It's all about

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collaboration. All about collaboration,

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networking, building relationships. That is just like, that's,

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my business, basically. So,

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Wendy, why did you get involved with female 5

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million?

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: well, because you're brilliant.

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>> Wo0: Thanks.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: And anything that you do is going to be good.

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So I was keen to get involved

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from that perspective. also, it really

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resonated with me what you said,

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your, your response to what that guy had

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said. It really resonated. You know,

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it's just trying to put women back in their place,

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like, whatever that is, whatever. You know,

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this guy thinks women should be in a certain place and do things in

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a certain way. And I feel like I've spent my whole life

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rebelling against that, even from when I was a little

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girl. And, you know, my dad would say things to me

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like, he said, once,

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you need to marry a man to keep you

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in the manner to which you've been accustomed.

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And I said, dad,

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I'm gonna make my own money. Thank you very much.

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>> Wo0: Look at you, Val Girl.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: And actually, you know what? He is really proud of me. And,

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my Sister. My sister has done really well as well.

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So. So my dad is. There's only two of us and he's very proud of

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us. But back then he had quite old fashioned

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attitudes and I think me and my sister have shown

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him.

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>> Wo0: I love that though. And he probably didn't

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mean like, there was nothing negative meant in that.

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>> Wo0: It was just.

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>> Wo0: That's how it is. Right. And that's.

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And that's what his lived experience was.

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So, do you think actuarial is a male

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dominated industry?

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: I think in some ways it can be.

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and it used to be much more male dominated,

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but it's changing rapidly. So at the senior

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level, yes, I would say it's more male dominated.

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But if you look at graduates, we

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have a pretty even split. And then if you

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even look at people who are qualified, it's. And pretty even

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spit. but in the, in the senior leadership team,

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we have 13 people

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and I think four of them

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are female.

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>> Wo0: How does that happen?

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Is it had like, if it's an even

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split, grads, even split at qualified.

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Is it that women are just

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stopping, not wanting to get promoted, aren't given the

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opportunity to be promoted? What do you think it is?

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: I think it's. It's less what's happening now and more

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than. More m. Than what happened in the past.

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>> Wo0: Uh-huh.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: So I think potentially women would get to

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a certain age and they wouldn't

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need to work, after having children.

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>> Wo0: Okay.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: It used to be you only needed one person to work like 20 years ago.

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You could, you know, you could just.

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>> Wo0: They'd only give you a mortgage if you.

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>> Wo0: They'd only give you a mortgage on one person's wage, right?

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Yeah, exactly. So you could get away with it. So I know a lot of

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women that just were like, there's no point me working. Some of my

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colleagues are married to actuaries and

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their wives who are also actuaries have said, oh, well,

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there's no point me going back to work now. You know,

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he earns enough. I haven't worked in 15 years. Why would I bother going back

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to work? It's too difficult.

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Yeah.

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>> Wo0: I mean m. If that's what you want to do, fantastic.

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But I could not imagine

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doing that at all.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: I think it is really hard to get back in though, once you've been

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out of the market. It's really difficult.

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>> Wo0: Yeah. so actuaries have to take

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exams.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Yes. The exams are a great leveller because no

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one knows who you are when you take the exams. And it's all

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done on how you perform. So you, you can't

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be biassed, basically. So,

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yeah, as long as you're good enough, you get your exams. And I

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think that's one of the reasons why women do better

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in this kind of career because

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it's. You can't be biassed in the exams

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if you put the work in and you pass and then you've got

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that bit of paper, this, that my mum said to me when I was young,

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when I was a child. Get yourself a profession so that you've got that bit

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of paper. So if you want to take time out of your career to have

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children, you can go back to it.

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>> Wo0: Which I thought, get yourself a trade.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. That's what she said.

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Between them, my parents prepared me for life, I think.

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>> Wo0: Oh, who. Bless them. so

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have you had any experiences with

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toxic men? And if you have, would you

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be comfortable sharing some of those

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experiences with us?

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Yeah, no, that's fine. I mean, not so much at work.

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but my ex husband, definitely,

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Yeah. I think I didn't realise

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how badly he treated me because I.

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I don't think I knew what

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a relationship should look like

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and I just thought it was normal that he was

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horrible to me and I thought it was

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my fault. Like he would make it my fault. He'd say, oh, you're so

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intolerant. But, yeah,

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narcissist behaviour, isn't it?

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>> Wo0: It's typical.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Narcissist, intolerant, but he puts it on me.

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>> Wo0: Yeah. How long were you with him for?

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: 15 years.

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>> Wo0: Oh, bless you.

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>> Wo0: Was it? Yeah, it's, You don't get

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taught how to have relationships, do you? You don't get

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taught how. What, like what's

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normal and what is toxic

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on what is allowed and what's not allowed. And

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maybe that's what we can do with some of this stuff that

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we're working on is, you know, show

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women and girls what's. What is not

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tolerable, what you do not put

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up with.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Yeah.

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>> Wo0: Say, Wendy, what is your experience of the patriarchy

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things up.

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What's your experience with dealing with it?

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: It's just made everything in my life harder.

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>> Wo0: Yeah.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: It's just meant I've had to work harder, I've had to be more

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resilient, I've had to go against the

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grain. it just. It's just little things

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like that really annoy me. Like, I get

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in the car and I'm quite short and

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nothing works how I want it to. I, can't Reach the pedals

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properly. It's not comfortable. The seat, I can't get the

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seat right and everything's just not quite right.

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And I just feel like everything every day, it's all

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these little things that add up to me just being annoyed.

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>> Wo0: Constantly on the car thing.

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Did you know that, this is another

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stat from Joe Phillips. Did you know

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that, they have only

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just started using female crash test dummies?

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Yeah.

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>> Wo0: And that is only in the passenger seat.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Yeah. Have you read Invisible Women?

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>> Wo0: No. Oh.

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>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Caroline Cardo Perez, she's this

Speaker: 00:16:17

incredible statistician and she uses

Speaker: 00:16:19

her stats to come up like the

Speaker: 00:16:22

ways that women are invisible in data. And she

Speaker: 00:16:25

uses that what, you know, find out

Speaker: 00:16:28

what's going on. And that's one of the things she, she

Speaker: 00:16:31

actually spoke to somebody who was involved in

Speaker: 00:16:34

doing this testing and his response to, you

Speaker: 00:16:37

know, why aren't you testing on women? His response was, well, you

Speaker: 00:16:40

know, we're not testing at the extreme. We're

Speaker: 00:16:42

testing average. She's like,

Speaker: 00:16:45

you're testing an average man.

Speaker: 00:16:47

>> Wo0: That's.

Speaker: 00:16:48

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Women are not an extreme. They're 50 of the population.

Speaker: 00:16:51

>> Wo0: That's like, that is

Speaker: 00:16:54

like hormones, like

Speaker: 00:16:57

hrt, the pill are

Speaker: 00:17:00

tested on men because female

Speaker: 00:17:02

hormones change too much,

Speaker: 00:17:06

so they don't test it on women.

Speaker: 00:17:09

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Like she's got a whole chapter on that in the book as

Speaker: 00:17:12

well.

Speaker: 00:17:13

>> Wo0: Okay, I need to have a look at it. Oh my God.

Speaker: 00:17:16

It's absolutely bonkers.

Speaker: 00:17:19

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Drives me insane.

Speaker: 00:17:19

>> Buckers: Isn't there something to do with like heart disease as well that the,

Speaker: 00:17:22

the symptoms of heart disease or like a

Speaker: 00:17:25

heart attack on the way present differently in men

Speaker: 00:17:28

and women? So more women die from heart

Speaker: 00:17:31

related diseases because

Speaker: 00:17:35

the way that those symptoms present in women haven't been

Speaker: 00:17:38

studied in the same way. I don't know.

Speaker: 00:17:40

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: They're having a heart attack. Yeah, yeah. Did you

Speaker: 00:17:43

know that? Yeah. It can. So men,

Speaker: 00:17:46

it's, I think it's more instant. Whereas in women it can

Speaker: 00:17:49

build up over a very long period. and so you,

Speaker: 00:17:51

you think you might just have indigestion, right? Actually,

Speaker: 00:17:54

you're, you're having a heart attack over

Speaker: 00:17:57

the period of a week or something. It's horrible.

Speaker: 00:18:01

>> Wo0: Wow.

Speaker: 00:18:05

>> Wo0: Right. So Wendy, me and

Speaker: 00:18:07

producer Buckers, when we were creating the

Speaker: 00:18:10

trailer for this podcast Bucket

Speaker: 00:18:13

had put together some brilliant. Like she put

Speaker: 00:18:16

together not a script but you know, just like written some

Speaker: 00:18:19

information down about what, what the podcast

Speaker: 00:18:22

was, etc.

Speaker: 00:18:23

>> Wo0: Etc.

Speaker: 00:18:25

>> Wo0: And in there was like

Speaker: 00:18:28

that I was so strong

Speaker: 00:18:31

and that I'd come through this

Speaker: 00:18:33

stronger and what was it when you

Speaker: 00:18:36

said buckers? It was. That wasn't.

Speaker: 00:18:39

>> Buckers: Was something like, we wanted the podcast to, like,

Speaker: 00:18:42

be able to, like, give women a voice or, like, make them more

Speaker: 00:18:45

heard or. I can't remember

Speaker: 00:18:47

exactly what it was, but Wendy, let

Speaker: 00:18:50

me tell you.

Speaker: 00:18:51

>> Wo0: Woo.

Speaker: 00:18:52

>> Buckers: Put me on my place.

Speaker: 00:18:56

It was good that day.

Speaker: 00:18:59

>> Wo0: I hope I did it nicely. And so,

Speaker: 00:19:02

like, you know, like the phrases of being a

Speaker: 00:19:05

survivor or finding your voice or finding your

Speaker: 00:19:08

strength and stuff like that, and I'm like. But I

Speaker: 00:19:11

didn't find my strength. Like when I was going. When

Speaker: 00:19:14

I was in

Speaker: 00:19:17

domestic abuse relationships, I did

Speaker: 00:19:19

not feel strong. Like, I wasn't like, hm,

Speaker: 00:19:22

I can do this. It was like, I just have

Speaker: 00:19:25

to live. and I don't know if

Speaker: 00:19:29

you can't. If you can resonate with that

Speaker: 00:19:32

and like, if you do, how do you feel

Speaker: 00:19:35

about those phrases, like finding your strength and

Speaker: 00:19:37

finding your voice?

Speaker: 00:19:40

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: I mean, when, at the time you're in a. An

Speaker: 00:19:43

abusive relationship, you don't know you're in an abusive

Speaker: 00:19:46

relationship because if you knew, you would leave.

Speaker: 00:19:50

>> Wo0: I don't know about. Yeah, I mean, I think, like, I

Speaker: 00:19:53

did know I was in an abusive relationship, but there's definitely

Speaker: 00:19:55

many factors that I couldn't leave.

Speaker: 00:19:58

A. Because it was my. My house.

Speaker: 00:20:02

the other one. Because everything

Speaker: 00:20:05

was in their name. So my, like,

Speaker: 00:20:08

my, My wages got paid into their bank and I was given.

Speaker: 00:20:12

Yeah. And I was given, like, some cash

Speaker: 00:20:15

that I could spend and the phone was on there. It's like

Speaker: 00:20:18

all of my data, all of my photos were on there.

Speaker: 00:20:21

Like, like, so that. So I had to literally

Speaker: 00:20:24

plan to leave a

Speaker: 00:20:27

night and that went off 10 years. So,

Speaker: 00:20:30

>> Wo0: Yes.

Speaker: 00:20:31

>> Wo0: Yeah, cool. But, yes. So I will argue

Speaker: 00:20:34

with that point a little bit. It depends. It

Speaker: 00:20:37

depends. Right. but yeah, it is so

Speaker: 00:20:39

slow sometimes and it's so. And you don't

Speaker: 00:20:42

understand and they are like gaslighting you that you.

Speaker: 00:20:45

That you do think it's you a lot of the time. But

Speaker: 00:20:48

yeah, sorry I interrupted.

Speaker: 00:20:51

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Sorry. I hadn't thought about it from that perspective. But yeah,

Speaker: 00:20:54

once I realised that it was abusive, that's

Speaker: 00:20:57

when I knew I had to leave. But I can totally see that

Speaker: 00:21:00

if there were other factors,

Speaker: 00:21:03

you just couldn't leave. There's things that are making you stay.

Speaker: 00:21:06

>> Wo0: Yeah. And we only know. We only know, like, our

Speaker: 00:21:09

experiences. Right. We don't know. You don't know unless you've just

Speaker: 00:21:12

happened to you.

Speaker: 00:21:13

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Yeah. So finding your strength.

Speaker: 00:21:18

I felt like a weight had

Speaker: 00:21:21

been lifted when he. When I said don't

Speaker: 00:21:24

come home. I said, I want a divorce. Don't

Speaker: 00:21:27

come back. and I

Speaker: 00:21:30

suddenly thought, I don't have to deal with

Speaker: 00:21:33

him anymore. I can do things how I want.

Speaker: 00:21:36

And before that, I sort of felt like I

Speaker: 00:21:38

couldn't do stuff. Like, I was like, oh, you know, I can't

Speaker: 00:21:41

put more. I can't work more hours because I've

Speaker: 00:21:44

got to look after the children and I can't, you

Speaker: 00:21:47

know, I can't spend less time doing housework

Speaker: 00:21:50

because there's just so much to do. Who else is going to do it?

Speaker: 00:21:53

And then I suddenly thought, hang on a minute. I don't have to do

Speaker: 00:21:56

any tidying up after him. I, don't

Speaker: 00:21:59

have to spend hours a day anticipating

Speaker: 00:22:01

his needs. I don't have to worry about,

Speaker: 00:22:05

you know, all the stuff that he would mess up that would be my

Speaker: 00:22:08

problem. So he would constantly lose

Speaker: 00:22:10

keys or forget to buy something or forget to send

Speaker: 00:22:13

presents, and it was always my problem. Yeah,

Speaker: 00:22:16

I always had to deal with it and

Speaker: 00:22:20

just have it. Never knowing when one of these bombshells would

Speaker: 00:22:23

hit you and you, you'd go, right, how on earth am

Speaker: 00:22:26

I going to deal with this problem?

Speaker: 00:22:29

Like, he's forgotten his keys. It's my issue. I have to phone

Speaker: 00:22:31

everybody I know that might live nearby that happens to have a

Speaker: 00:22:34

key.

Speaker: 00:22:36

>> Wo0: Yeah. And I guess you do. You anticipate

Speaker: 00:22:39

always anticipating something happening. Must be

Speaker: 00:22:42

knackering, like. Yeah, just.

Speaker: 00:22:45

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Yeah, it's exhausting. And when that weight was lifted, I

Speaker: 00:22:47

suddenly realised I just have all this

Speaker: 00:22:50

energy and time now for myself

Speaker: 00:22:54

and I can. I just felt like I could do anything.

Speaker: 00:22:57

And you have.

Speaker: 00:22:58

>> Wo0: I love it.

Speaker: 00:23:03

So you introduced me

Speaker: 00:23:06

to the fantastic ladies at Neon

Speaker: 00:23:09

Leo. So some guy had said

Speaker: 00:23:12

to one of them, about the skirt

Speaker: 00:23:15

was too short or something, wasn't it?

Speaker: 00:23:16

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Just in the street, a random guy and said,

Speaker: 00:23:19

go and put some trousers on,

Speaker: 00:23:22

like.

Speaker: 00:23:23

>> Wo0: So Wendy tagged me in this reel, and said, you,

Speaker: 00:23:26

you, like, you need to know each other. So I was like,

Speaker: 00:23:29

hi, can I be your friend? And.

Speaker: 00:23:32

And I went down and I met them and I did. And I did a shoot and

Speaker: 00:23:35

they're going to be in the book as well, and they are absolutely fabulous.

Speaker: 00:23:38

So I just wanted to say, really, thank you very much for

Speaker: 00:23:40

that introduction and shout out to the Neon Leo

Speaker: 00:23:43

ladies. You can hire

Speaker: 00:23:47

the most amazing clothes from there or

Speaker: 00:23:49

you can buy them. They're like, they are

Speaker: 00:23:52

sustainable fashion, they are cool

Speaker: 00:23:55

as. And they are very fun,

Speaker: 00:23:59

all of the fun.

Speaker: 00:24:04

And you're near them, aren't you, you live near them.

Speaker: 00:24:07

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: 15 minutes away from me and I now.

Speaker: 00:24:10

So every month, like a small, I pay a small

Speaker: 00:24:13

amount and I get a free, rental every single

Speaker: 00:24:16

month. So that's good.

Speaker: 00:24:18

>> Buckers: Where are these ladies? Where are, ah, where

Speaker: 00:24:21

will I find these ladies?

Speaker: 00:24:23

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: So they're in Saffron Walden, but you don't actually have to go there. They'll do it all by

Speaker: 00:24:26

post for you if you like.

Speaker: 00:24:28

>> Wo0: They're ethnic, like North North

Speaker: 00:24:30

Essex.

Speaker: 00:24:31

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: North Essex Cambridgeship M. Borders. Yeah,

Speaker: 00:24:34

yeah, yeah. They're amazing. And they do this. Like,

Speaker: 00:24:37

when I signed up, they did me a gift bag and they chose

Speaker: 00:24:40

everything specifically for me. Like, I messaged her and said,

Speaker: 00:24:43

did you choose this lipstick for me?

Speaker: 00:24:45

Yeah, I did. I was like, it's the perfect shade.

Speaker: 00:24:49

>> Wo0: They're so good. So, you know, like, I like to wear

Speaker: 00:24:52

tracksuit bottoms because, you know,

Speaker: 00:24:54

relaxed. They, they found me

Speaker: 00:24:58

tracksuit bottoms with black

Speaker: 00:25:02

sequins. Black. Fully black

Speaker: 00:25:05

sequin tracksuit bottoms. They are the most beautiful thing in the world.

Speaker: 00:25:09

Like, there's never a more me item of clothing

Speaker: 00:25:13

or. It's just so perfect.

Speaker: 00:25:15

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Oh, yeah.

Speaker: 00:25:17

>> Buckers: So you keep them. They, they send you stuff and you

Speaker: 00:25:20

wear it for a month and send it back. Or is there an option

Speaker: 00:25:23

to, like, keep it if you really like it? How does it work?

Speaker: 00:25:26

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Yeah, they do. Yeah. Though. So if you, if you buy, if you rent something and

Speaker: 00:25:29

you want to keep it, you can, they'll take the price of the rental off

Speaker: 00:25:32

the purchase price and you can just keep it.

Speaker: 00:25:34

yeah, or. And you can rent it for any. I think

Speaker: 00:25:37

4 days, 8 days, 21 days rental.

Speaker: 00:25:40

so I did a. For the, for the photo shoot, the

Speaker: 00:25:43

female five minute photo shoot. That's when I first went to them. That's

Speaker: 00:25:46

how I knew about them was because I knew was that the first.

Speaker: 00:25:49

>> Wo0: Time, that was the first time I'd.

Speaker: 00:25:51

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Rented that amazing

Speaker: 00:25:53

dress. And I've seen it on Instagram.

Speaker: 00:25:56

I think they were like friends of friends of friends. And I saw it. I love that

Speaker: 00:25:59

dress. I must, must go and try it on for that flu or

Speaker: 00:26:02

photo shoot. And that's when I rented it. And it

Speaker: 00:26:05

just sort of ballooned from there.

Speaker: 00:26:06

>> Buckers: Such a good idea.

Speaker: 00:26:08

>> Wo0: And from there I am gonna ask

Speaker: 00:26:11

you this question. It's normally the final question, but

Speaker: 00:26:14

there's going to be one after this. Can you tell us, can you

Speaker: 00:26:17

tell us one piece of clothing or an outfit that makes

Speaker: 00:26:20

you feel your.

Speaker: 00:26:20

>> Wo0: Most powerful or beautiful?

Speaker: 00:26:23

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Okay, so, I got it from there. This, this item

Speaker: 00:26:25

of clothing. It is a Huge

Speaker: 00:26:29

jacket. It's bright orange

Speaker: 00:26:31

and it's furry. And

Speaker: 00:26:34

my husband said I looked. It

Speaker: 00:26:37

looked like a yeti had had an accident in an

Speaker: 00:26:40

iron brew factory.

Speaker: 00:26:44

>> Wo0: Oh. But it is just stunning. It's

Speaker: 00:26:47

huge.

Speaker: 00:26:48

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Like I said earlier, I'm not very big, so I don't take up

Speaker: 00:26:51

a lot of space. But when I wear this jacket, I'm

Speaker: 00:26:54

huge. It's so fluffy. It's, And it's got these

Speaker: 00:26:57

really wide, like, batwing arms as

Speaker: 00:27:00

well. So you've got this huge fluff, this huge

Speaker: 00:27:02

jacket. And it just makes me enormous. It's, it's just about

Speaker: 00:27:05

waist length. So it's not. It's not full length, it's waist length, but

Speaker: 00:27:08

it's really warm. Ridiculously warm. And I love

Speaker: 00:27:11

wearing on the tube because everyone stares at me

Speaker: 00:27:14

and they also get out of my way, which is

Speaker: 00:27:17

something I haven't experienced before. So they look at

Speaker: 00:27:20

you and they go, oh, my God, what is she wearing?

Speaker: 00:27:24

That is. That's crazy. And they just sort of go, she's

Speaker: 00:27:26

a bit odd. And, so they sort of give you

Speaker: 00:27:29

a wide berth. But then when I'm. When I'm standing on the tube,

Speaker: 00:27:33

people will give me so much more space because I'm

Speaker: 00:27:35

taking up space. And that feeling of

Speaker: 00:27:38

taking up space, I've never had that before. And it's.

Speaker: 00:27:41

It's brilliant. It's like, you know, men do that.

Speaker: 00:27:44

Like they man spread and they take up loads of stuff.

Speaker: 00:27:47

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:27:47

>> Wo0: Oh, my God, I hate it so much.

Speaker: 00:27:50

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: I'm like, I'm not making myself smaller anymore. I'm making

Speaker: 00:27:52

myself bigger. I'm gonna wear enormous clothes

Speaker: 00:27:55

so that people give me space on the tube. And

Speaker: 00:27:58

don't cry with me and don't put their armpits in my

Speaker: 00:28:01

face. Get out of my way.

Speaker: 00:28:04

>> Wo0: What? Sorry. What do we think about man spreading? Right?

Speaker: 00:28:07

>> Buckers: Not a fan, like, so

Speaker: 00:28:11

I do.

Speaker: 00:28:11

>> Wo0: Not want your leg touching my leg. However,

Speaker: 00:28:14

if you're spreading onto my side, I'm pushing back,

Speaker: 00:28:17

bruv.

Speaker: 00:28:18

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Yeah. Yeah. I don't think many

Speaker: 00:28:21

people do it anymore because I think it does have such a bad name.

Speaker: 00:28:24

>> Wo0: they do where I am.

Speaker: 00:28:26

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Really? Yeah. Oh,

Speaker: 00:28:29

wow.

Speaker: 00:28:30

>> Wo0: Anyway, one last question, Wendy.

Speaker: 00:28:34

We, are not men haters.

Speaker: 00:28:37

I love men. I love sexy men

Speaker: 00:28:40

the most. And I

Speaker: 00:28:43

would. Sexy, clever, humorous men.

Speaker: 00:28:46

Like different things. Mean sexy, not just licks,

Speaker: 00:28:49

guys. So do you

Speaker: 00:28:51

have any positive examples of men

Speaker: 00:28:54

showing their support for you?

Speaker: 00:28:57

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: I've got one, silly one.

Speaker: 00:29:01

I actually find this really attractive and really sexy.

Speaker: 00:29:04

my husband has enormous Hands, like,

Speaker: 00:29:06

absolutely. His fingers are more than twice

Speaker: 00:29:09

the thickness of mine. They're just huge man

Speaker: 00:29:13

paws. They're really impressive. And

Speaker: 00:29:15

he pretty much does all the washing and my favourite thing

Speaker: 00:29:18

to do is to watch him put my lingerie away

Speaker: 00:29:21

with his enormous paws.

Speaker: 00:29:24

It's so sexy.

Speaker: 00:29:27

>> Wo0: That is really cool. I love that.

Speaker: 00:29:30

So, yeah, that's definitely a positive example of men showing us.

Speaker: 00:29:33

But like, well, like, big up him during the washing. Full stop.

Speaker: 00:29:37

Big up him for having big hands

Speaker: 00:29:40

and big up him for being delicate with your delicate.

Speaker: 00:29:47

Wendy, thank you so much for coming on. You're so

Speaker: 00:29:50

lovely. Where can people find you or your art?

Speaker: 00:29:53

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: So wendycrese evans.com with a K and a

Speaker: 00:29:56

Z. It's a Czech name. It means cross

Speaker: 00:29:59

in Czech. So if you forget. Yeah,

Speaker: 00:30:02

yeah. I met, I met a Czech lady at an art exhibition and

Speaker: 00:30:05

she's like, chris, is that Czech?

Speaker: 00:30:08

Yes, it is.

Speaker: 00:30:11

That's, ah, courtesy of my ex husband. But I decided

Speaker: 00:30:14

to keep it.

Speaker: 00:30:17

>> Wo0: Yeah.

Speaker: 00:30:17

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: And I wanted to have the same name as my children until they're grown up. so

Speaker: 00:30:20

I thought I might ditch it eventually. But I kind of like

Speaker: 00:30:24

being unique.

Speaker: 00:30:25

>> Wo0: Yeah, my ADHD coach changed

Speaker: 00:30:28

her name, and she was like,

Speaker: 00:30:31

I'm just gonna pick one. Fox.

Speaker: 00:30:34

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Fox.

Speaker: 00:30:35

>> Wo0: So she's on Fox.

Speaker: 00:30:37

>> Wendy Kriz Evans: Amazing.

Speaker: 00:30:38

>> Wo0: Yeah, Love it. Anyway, let's. Thank you so much

Speaker: 00:30:41

for coming on. I really appreciate you taking the time to

Speaker: 00:30:44

talk to us. You are a legend and I love

Speaker: 00:30:47

you and you're wonderful. I love you too.

Speaker: 00:30:51

>> Wo0: See you later.

Speaker: 00:30:55

That's it for today's episode of Don't Tell Me what to Wear

Speaker: 00:30:57

or How to Run My Business, on the Woopod with me,

Speaker: 00:31:00

Wendy Gannon. This is more than just a podcast.

Speaker: 00:31:03

It's part of female 5 million. Head to the link in the

Speaker: 00:31:06

show notes to find out more about our movement to empower women.

Speaker: 00:31:10

If this episode spoke to you in any way, made you laugh,

Speaker: 00:31:13

made you cry, or maybe it inspired you, share

Speaker: 00:31:15

it with a friend who needs to hear it. Leave us a rating and a

Speaker: 00:31:18

review and let's keep this movement growing.

Speaker: 00:31:22

And while I've got you here, my photography is the way that

Speaker: 00:31:24

I fight back against the patriarchy. I empower

Speaker: 00:31:27

female founders with the confidence to be themselves in their business,

Speaker: 00:31:30

to really enjoy their photo shoot and actually

Speaker: 00:31:33

love their photos so then they can grow their business,

Speaker: 00:31:36

increase their prices and get paid what they fucking deserve.

Speaker: 00:31:40

If you want to work with me, drop me a message. All the info you

Speaker: 00:31:43

need to contact me is in the show notes. Until next

Speaker: 00:31:46

time, keep doing you and remember, you are part of

Speaker: 00:31:49

something bigger.

Speaker: 00:31:49

>> Wo0: bye.