159. Rachel Hollis & The Rose-Colored Glass Ceiling: Part 1
Be There in Five
Kate Kennedy
4.8 • 7.1K Ratings
🗓️ 11 April 2021
⏱️ 148 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A Rachel Hollis deep dive. In this episode, Kate dives into the recent controversy surrounding the self-help empire of Rachel Hollis, who is a wildly successful motivational speaker, podcast host, CEO of Rise (and formerly HollisCo), among other things, but is probably most well-known for being the author of NYT best sellers "Girl, Wash Your Face" and "Girl, Stop Apologizing." Kate starts with analysis of the troubling dialogue and caption of her now-deleted video and also now-deleted first apology last week. Then, she discusses the problem with "made for more" culture, especially in the context of the RISE conference and support of the MLM industry that preys on vulnerable people via her prosperity gospel-adjacent business coaching. Then Kate talks through her journey with what she's found troubling about Hollis' content, detailing how she thinks it fits in the broader 2010s self-help zeitgeist of #girlboss culture, and shares her journey in how these movements have shaped her view of feminism and empowerment. In the second episode, Kate will read more listener-submitted emails, wanting to give her take so she can open up the floor to give her yours. Please submit any feedback, stories of being in the RH fandom, or thoughts on women's self-help to [email protected] subject line RH. All opinions in this episode are of Kate Kennedy’s or listeners that submitted emails to Be There in Five Podcast.
SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS!
Go to Feals.com/bethereinfive and you'll get 50% off your first order with free shipping.
Helix is offering up to $200 off ALL mattress orders AND 2 free pillows for our listeners at
Go to HelloFresh.com/bethereinfive12 and use code bethereinfive12 for 12 free meals, including free shipping!
Ritual is offering my listeners 10% off during your first 3 months. Visit ritual.com/BETHEREINFIVE to start your Ritual today.
Works Cited:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/12/style/rachel-hollis-girl-wash-your-face.html
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/janebradley/tony-robbins-self-help-secrets
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/how-rachel-hollis--a-texas-mom-of-four--ended-up-writing-one-of-the-years-biggest-books/2018/11/10/59d3e89e-d9e1-11e8-a10f-b51546b10756_story.html
Quote from Tony Robbins' seminars:
https://medium.com/the-awl/im-with-awesome-fire-walking-with-tony-robbins-fcd4a49d8ed
Savvy Writes Books RH Reviews:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9WShNx2HsXRGjj9F593HzA
Black Magic Violin:
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I got this email from a Be There and Five listener and I wanted to begin by reading it. |
| 0:06.8 | Hi, I've never done this but saw your stories about Rachel Hollis and followed her for |
| 0:11.4 | three plus years so I thought I'd share a few of my experiences and takeaways. |
| 0:16.2 | I discovered her through an event she was speaking at in the months before girl washer |
| 0:19.6 | face came out. |
| 0:20.6 | It was just before rise conference in LA I believe because I remember wanting to go to |
| 0:25.3 | it and literally considering scrambling together hundreds of dollars to fly from DC to |
| 0:29.9 | LA in just a few weeks to hear this woman I just learned about for the first time. |
| 0:36.0 | She told a story of, quote, losing the twins they had tried to adopt. |
| 0:39.8 | Me still having a lot to learn about adoption and foster care. |
| 0:42.6 | I heard it as the sad story from her perspective that it was and didn't even see the white |
| 0:47.2 | saviorism in it at the time but that's a whole other topic. |
| 0:50.9 | Anyway from that point on I drank the cool aid about the book and it was exactly the book |
| 0:55.4 | I needed during a really tough season in my life. |
| 0:58.4 | I took the tough love exactly as she intended for me to and used it to pick myself up off |
| 1:03.2 | the ground and get my shit together. |
| 1:05.8 | I loved it so much that I would go back and relisten to certain chapters when I needed |
| 1:10.2 | to pick me up. |
| 1:11.2 | It became my Bible of self help. |
| 1:13.8 | I listened to any and all podcast episode she was on so much that I can probably tell |
| 1:18.3 | you her life story better than she can at this point. |
| 1:21.5 | I was a faithful follower of all things Hollis watched her morning FP live videos with |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Kate Kennedy, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Kate Kennedy and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.