We have to unclutter our brains from worries that maybe people don’t like us. Women tend to worry about popularity it doesn’t matter if they like you. They need to respect you. They need to show that respect for you in your pay check. And that needs to be okay.

Brzezinski urges women to stop expending mental energy on being liked—an anxiety she frames as culturally conditioned—and to redirect that energy toward professional self-advocacy. The quote contrasts “popularity” with “respect,” defining respect in concrete, measurable terms: compensation. By insisting that respect should appear “in your paycheck,” she links dignity to economic valuation and challenges norms that reward agreeableness over assertiveness. The closing “that needs to be okay” acknowledges the social penalties women often face for negotiating or projecting authority, and argues for normalizing those behaviors as legitimate and necessary for pay equity.