In this motivational compilation, host Evan Carmichael launches his #GirlBoss series aimed at empowering women entrepreneurs. He frames the episode as a set of eight "rules" for success, each delivered by a prominent figure. Rule 1, presented by Lisa Nichols, urges listeners to refuse being defined by societal labels such as gender, race, or religion and to let results, not boxes, define them. Rule 2, voiced by Melinda Gates, highlights the tendency of women to doubt their readiness for promotion and calls for both personal confidence and managerial support to bridge the gap. Rule 3, from Mel Robbins, stresses the power of modern media: anyone can share ideas and build an audience instantly via social platforms, bypassing traditional gatekeepers. Rule 4, delivered by Mila Kunis, advises loving one’s craft while maintaining other interests so that work does not become the sole identity, preventing burnout. Rule 5, with Whoopi Goldberg, champions authenticity, accepting that being true to oneself may invite criticism but is essential for personal fulfillment. Rule 6, Iyanla Vanzant’s segment, explores the danger of undervaluing oneself, recounting her own experience of self‑sabotage despite external success, and urges recognition of intrinsic worth. Rule 7, from Margot Robbie, addresses fear and self‑doubt when tackling big tasks, encouraging perseverance despite a “crisis of faith.” Rule 8, Nina Dobrev’s story, illustrates relentless hard work and sacrifice as prerequisites for achievement. The episode concludes with a bonus clip featuring Simon Sinek (and Iyanla Vanzant) discussing how true leadership blends traditionally masculine traits (decisiveness) with feminine qualities (empathy, patience), suggesting that women can lead without mimicking men. Throughout, Evan repeatedly asks viewers to comment on how to improve the series, reinforcing community engagement.
Chapters
This is the bag that you were given. A woman, a man, Black, white, Indian, Asian, the religion you were born into, the economic status you grew up under. All of those things are boxes that someone else said, "Let's drop you in it," and then you had to choose if you're gonna stay in it.
Women don't tend to see themselves as ready for the next role as they ought to. They doubt themselves.
The people that do it to have the 15 minutes of fame and to be able to buy that mansion ultimately burn out.
What's up, Believe Nation? It's Evan. My one word is believe, and I believe in you. I believe you have an amazing gift inside you that I wanna see explode out onto the world. Now, this is part of my new Girl Boss series. I am obviously not a girl, but I do believe that you can shine a light of support on one community without putting another community down. So my aim with this series is to shine a light of excellence on women entrepreneurs and maybe inspire a few more girls to believe in themselves as well. Enjoy. All right, let's kick things off with rule number 1: Don't live under the label with Lisa Nichols.
We so often, we wear labels. There's a label that's to me, there's several labels. I'm an African American woman, I'm a single mom, you know, I'm a CEO, I'm a daughter. There's so many labels to me, but I don't live under the label. I allow the label to exist, but it doesn't define me. And so I invite you, if you are a woman, you know, there's so many men watching my channel. I love you. I want you to always come. You're always welcome. This is your home. But to my sisters, I invite you, don't feel like life is harder for you because you're a woman. Don't feel like you have to work harder because you're a woman. Work hard. Just work hard. I never looked at, am I working harder as a woman? Am I working harder as a black person? Now, are there inequities?
Absolutely.
I am not blind to that. But like I said in the previous episode, energy grows where energy goes. Am I going to give the inequities energy or am I going to give the possibility energy? And I'm not saying that everything's hunky-dory and all things are right. No, there are some wrongs that really need to be corrected. But here's what I won't do. I won't wear a label and walk in a room living under that label, wondering how you're going to treat me because of that label. People used to ask, Lisa, how did you get on the main stage with people like Tony Robbins and and Jack Canfield and people like, you know, they rattle off all these older white men, are very successful white speakers in the industry. And they say, how'd you get on stage with them as a black woman? Or how'd you get on stage with them as a woman? And I go, I didn't get on stage with them as a woman. I got on stage with them as a badass speaker. I got on stage with them as someone who can bring value to the audience. I got on stage with them because I'm a change agent. So can you live through the results that you produce in the world? Can you allow that to define you? Like, this is the bag that you were given— a woman, a man, black, white, Indian, Asian, the religion you were born into, the economic status you grew up under. All of those things are boxes that someone else said, let's drop you in it, and then you had to choose if you're gonna stay in it. I am too big to be defined by a box, any box, any label of any size. Why don't you join that? So don't be successful as a woman, be successful. Don't be successful as a man, be successful. Don't be loving and giving as a Black person or white person or Asian person, be loving and giving. Just be. And then become contagious for someone else to want to be that way because they crossed your path.
Rule number 2 is don't doubt yourself with Melinda Gates.
When a job opens up and you say, "Hey, there's this next job opening," a woman won't necessarily put her hat in the ring for that next rung up, and you'll have 10 men that say, whether they're qualified or not, "I'm ready for it." Women don't tend to see themselves as ready for the next role as they ought to. They doubt themselves. Whatever it is about self-confidence, that's something that I think you can absolutely work on in an organization, and I think it's up to the managers, men or women, to reach down and pull those women up and say, "No, you are ready for that promotion," or, "You're at least as qualified as the other men." put your name in the hat. Whether you get the job or not, it'll be great experience for you to go for it and try it. For me, it's all about making sure we lift up women and girls because I feel like we have a chance to do that. We're talking about it as a world. There's a lot of conversation about it. We're moving in the right direction, but we need concrete action.
Rule number 3: Share your ideas with the world with Mel Robbins.
I've been in the media business for 10 years. When I tell you that things have changed 1,000%, let me just give you an example. My first media deal, I was signed by ABC. ABC, that's right, ABC, the big dog. Crazy syndicated shows. I was signed by them to do a talk show deal. Now, do you know what that meant? There was some executive that was looking out over the sea of talent. They were meeting with agents, they were picking people, they were doubting you. And then guess what? If they did pick you, they owned everything. They told you what to do. Oprah's an anomaly. The game was gatekeepers, a few media players, a sea of competition, total scarcity. Now, what is it today? Holy shit. It's unbelievable. If you have an iPhone, you can have a show. If you have an idea and you're willing to put it out there and you're willing to start sharing yourself on social media, you have a syndication platform. There is no one doubting you except for you. And that's why I'm sitting here imploring you. I'm telling you right now, if you have a business, if you have aspirations, if you have a dream, the single biggest opportunity in front of you is to put it out on social media, to start talking about the things that interest you, to start sharing your ideas, sharing and documenting what you're up to. I guarantee you, you start doing that and you're gonna start amassing an audience that you had no idea was out there dying to connect with you, to learn from you, and to grow with you.
Rule number 4: Love what you do with Mila Kunis.
There's so many talented people that don't get a break, and there's no rhyme or reason behind it. But they do it and they hustle and they love it. And that's the people that ultimately make it. The people that do it to have the 15 minutes of fame and to be able to buy that mansion ultimately burn out. And so I think study your craft. I hate saying this, but make sure you have other things that you enjoy doing. Make sure what you do does not define who you are because this industry is so fickle. And so because of that, I think I started a production company in order to have a job where there is a job, where there is a So a level of confidence that I'll be able to pay my bills tomorrow that I don't get necessarily from acting.
Rule number 5, be yourself with Whoopi Goldberg.
Well, my life is a class if I was to say. It probably teaches that you can be yourself and an individual if you are comfortable with not everybody liking you or how you think. If you're comfortable with going against the grain, if you're comfortable with, you know, people making fun or saying really nasty stuff, if you're comfortable with all of that, you can be yourself. It's— that's the price. The price of being yourself is, you know, other people's angst about you being yourself. Look at me. This was not anyone's idea of what a movie star looked like ever. You know, and after it happened, you know, I would read that in the paper all the time. What's with the face? What's with the hair? Why does she look like this? Why didn't she wear high heels? Why is she dressed like a guy? Is she gay? Is she straight? What the hell? You know, for years and years and years, you know, because I, you know, I guess you were supposed to be a little more glamorous. And I'm just— Glamour's a lot of work. I'm fundamentally lazy. You know, I have dreads because I didn't want to comb my hair. You know, it had nothing to do with Rastas. And people are like, oh, you're so— I'm not deep. I'm this deep. I'm this deep. I wore sneakers because it was most comfortable for me, you know? And who wants to stand in high heels for 3 or 4 hours, you know, when you could be wearing sneakers under that dress? So that's what I did.
Rule number 6. Know Your Worth with Iyanla Vanzant.
Your real self knows the truth. No matter what mask or what face you wear in the world, your real self knows the truth. And there was a time in my life when I acted like I knew a truth that I didn't know. And the truth I didn't know was the depth of my value and my worth. You see, I had already been an author that had sold over 6 million books. 14 different titles. I had already been on my own television show. I had traveled around the world. I had spoken to hundreds of thousands of people. And still, I did not know or value my own worth. So I had a very big opportunity to go forward and to be on what was once called The Oprah Winfrey Show. Yes, and I went on The Oprah Winfrey Show. And Ms. Winfrey asked me back again and again and again. Again, and eventually I became part of her Change Your Life faculty. And it was all good. I had written 13 books. I had traveled all over the country. I had done her show repeatedly. But I didn't know my own sense of worth. So what happened? I tried to live in a place that I didn't believe was true for me. And eventually, I crashed and burned. Crashed and burned by leaving the Oprah Winfrey Show and going on to another network and doing another show that I didn't even survive a season, all because I didn't know my worth. Now, it would have looked like all sorts of external circumstances. Oh, there was a miscommunication between me and Ms. Winfrey, and the other network was offering me a lot of money, and why shouldn't I take a big business deal? No. Mm-mm. It was about me not knowing my own worth, me not being able to stand in the miracle of being on the Oprah Winfrey Show repeatedly among honored teachers without having to work hard for it because that was what I had been taught. The matter with me was that I didn't know how to receive a gift, a blessing, without working hard for it. So when things came to me easily, I blew them up. It's self-sabotage or procrastination or forgetting or whatever it is That opportunity went away because I didn't know my worth. That's the kind of truth we have to tell each other. We have to be aware of it, we have to acknowledge it, and we have to accept it.
Rule number 7: Overcome fear with Margot Robbie.
I feel like when you undertake any big task, you kind of have this crisis of faith in yourself, and you're like, I can't do it. It's— I couldn't. I just can't. So I had that, and, and for, you know, for a brief moment I was like, I guess I'm not going to do the role. I can't do nudity and I can't— I would never be good enough for this anyway. And, and then, you know, the thought occurred to me, oh, I guess who's going to play it then? And then that just infuriated me. Thought of someone else playing my role. I was like, well, they couldn't possibly do the role. No, I have to do it because no one else could possibly do the role. So, so yes, no, I had my moment of my crisis. Is a faith.
And rule number 8, the last one before a very special bonus clip, is work hard with Nina Dobrev.
My parents couldn't afford to put me in a lot of dance classes and things like that. But they would throw me into the community ones. And it created this—
The free ones, yeah.
The free ones, yeah. And then eventually when I started acting— or it started with modeling, and then it turned into acting— they didn't approve of it. They didn't have the money to support it. So with my jobs, I would pay for the headshots and I would go take classes and take 4 different buses and a subway to get downtown from the suburbs in Toronto where I lived to get to the class. I wanted it. And if, like, if I didn't actually put in the work for it, I wouldn't have gotten to where I am. And it really had to be from within.
Now I've got a very special bonus clip with Simon Sinek around how women make great leaders, but before that, I want to get your thoughts. This is still a new series for us. I'm still looking at how to make it better, make improvements, including different people on this series. I would love to know from you how can we make this series better? What were your thoughts in this video? Please, please, please share your thoughts down in the comments below. I'm paying attention. Thank you guys so much for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever Your one word is much love. I'll see you soon, and enjoy the bonus clip.
Women have become more leader conscious than when I was a kid.
Yeah, I don't think it's that we need more female leaders. It's that we need more leaders who act like females, and women just happen to be better at that. For too long, we've focused our attention, we falsely believe that all of leadership is about aggression and decisiveness, traditionally male attributes, whereas true leadership also includes things like empathy, patience, caring, which are traditionally female characteristics. So you need a balance of both. The great leaders have both. It's not one or the other. But I think the great thing is that we live in a day and age where women don't have to pretend to be like men anymore. They can be feminine and be be leaders, and I love that.
Raise your standard. Apple, at the core, its core value is that we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better.
Not one drop of my self-worth depends on your acceptance of me.
I don't ever give up.
I'd have to be dead or completely incapacitated.
Hey, Believe Nation! If you want to see my all-time favorite top 10 rules of success, I have a very special secret video for you. These are the individual clips that I have personally learned the most from and applied to my life and my business. Check the link in the description for details.
