Rachel Hollis
speaker
279 appearances
3 recordings
3 series
first heard May 2025
last heard 6 Jun
Rachel Hollis’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.
Appearances
And obviously that's not what happened, but probably one of the worst businesses you could be in in 2020 was live events. So I went from being on top of the world and having this massively successful company to slowly having to lay people off. And by mid-2021, just everything had shut down. I just had taken my staff back to, I think, four or five people.
And the podcast really became the core of my business. But this business I had spent so many years building up to came crashing down. And I know your audience is going to get this too. So much of that business was me. That's how I saw myself. It was my identity. I had a massive ego death, like so many things happened.
But that, so the business collapsing, I went through a really bad divorce in 2020. And just, it felt kind of like one thing had stacked on top of another. And in 2020, 20, oh gosh, it's all running together in my mind. Within the last couple of years, my ex-husband, my children's father passed away unexpectedly.
And that was sort of just getting your head back above water and then life kicks the crap out of you again. And I know I'm not the only one who has that story either. I know that so many people have their version of getting sick or losing someone they love or getting fired or trying to figure it out. And I think it affects us all in different ways. But for me...
there's just so much psychologically tied up in all of it. And there are times where I've felt like, why am I working so hard? Why am I trying to build this? Why am I trying to do this thing if it can like go away that fast? And then other times where I'm like, oh, we've worked too hard to like give up now. So it's sort of vastly between both of those things. But
I really wanted to write about that lived experience because that's my trauma. But I guarantee people listening to this have way worse stories that they could tell and way harder things that they've lived through. There's some solace in understanding you're not the only one who maybe had to fight hard to get themselves going today. But by God, we're here.
And we're doing it and we're showing up as the very best that we can with what we've got. And hopefully it gets a little bit easier as we go along. We start to get some momentum and then we can do some really great work.
be going through a rough patch in their entrepreneurship? That is such a good question. And I love that you're wise enough to ask that, Hala. If you're listening to this and you're like, I am crushing it. I can do no wrong. Because there was a time where I was like, we're just doing all the things. This is working.
One thing, and you kind of mentioned this already, is anybody who has a business that is audience-based and you access that audience through someone else's business, you need to be really careful. So I told you guys that, you know, I had the website and we built Facebook pages. which sounds so antiquated now, but that was the means to access an audience back in the day.
And Russell, you mentioned Russell Brunson, he has his own version of this story of you build up this massive audience and then one day the company you access them through changes And now you don't have access anymore. So I remember with Facebook, we killed ourselves building up an audience and getting people to join that page.
And then one day you posted something and it literally would say underneath your posts, 3% of your followers saw this post. If you'd like to access more of your followers, boost your post. Paying for Facebook ads is so normal now, but there was a time where you did not have to pay to access the audience. The same thing happens when an algorithm changes. The same thing happens as podcasters.
You know this. iOS did an update a year and a half ago that completely changed. Yes, it completely changed the way that our audience can access our content. And it really makes you aware of how vulnerable you are if you access your fan base or your audience through someone else's business. So yes, I've had an email since I had a blog.
So 300,000 people, 60% open rate because I have sent her an email every Sunday for 15 years. And I very rarely use that audience I don't monetize it. I don't sell access to them. I just utilize it so that if I'm launching something like a new book, I know that I can speak directly to my fan base without having to pay an advertising fee. So be aware of how you access everybody.
That's super important. Be aware that I'm going to sound so ridiculous right now, but just real talk. The bigger that you get... everyone's like, this is amazing, this is amazing, this is amazing. And like one day people are like, I don't like this anymore. Especially if you are a woman. Straight up real talk. You hit a point, everyone's rooting for you and they're so proud of what you're doing.
And all of a sudden it's like, wait a minute, something's wrong here. So I wish that I had understood everything that you have to tread lightly. I think you have to be a little bit paranoid when you hit higher levels of success because I tend to be such a Pollyanna and I'm just like, everyone's amazing, everyone's kind, the world is beautiful. And it is, and also it's not.
So that's where diversifying how you get your revenue is really important. Like you said, if one stream goes away, you know you've got another. But yeah, I just wish I had been a little bit more like a mobster or something. Just like a little bit more like, who's going to get me? Yeah, like I know that that sounds so dramatic, but honestly...
I think that as women in business, particularly for building a company, particularly as you grow bigger and bigger, I honestly probably would have talked about my success less.
I thought if I share what we're doing, if I share how many people are employed at this company and they have 401ks and health insurance, and like if I share what we're doing, that will inspire other women to build businesses as well. But the more that I talked about success, the more it seemed to upset people.
And I wish I had been a bit more protective of what we were doing and the kind of numbers that we do. And now I don't talk about any of that at all. I used to think, Hala, I was like, why doesn't Oprah? Why doesn't Sarah Blakely? Why doesn't Reese Witherspoon? These women are billionaires with a B. Why aren't they talking about their entrepreneurial success? And now I'm like,
Because the world doesn't like it when women succeed at that level. And if you want to keep succeeding at a certain level, I think that the way that it is acceptable is to be demure and not admit your success. And maybe that's very pessimistic, but that's what I would say to you.
Showing 121–140 of 279 · page 7 of 14
← Previous
Next →