Ariana Grande, Jessie J, and Shakira discuss how vulnerability and authenticity unlock success. Grande credits embracing her "silly" self with overcoming public scrutiny. Shakira describes breaking her own limits by showing her legs on stage, finally expressing herself without seeking validation.
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Good morning, Believe Nation! Today's message is be yourself. Over to you, Ariana Grande.
Be yourself, you know, and in your most genuine possible way, and are completely unafraid. That's when everything starts to fall into place, and that takes a while, especially with so much public, like, you know, rumors and opinions, of course, you know what I mean? It's like, yeah, you get scared and you want to hold back a little, but then I was like, you know what, like, none of this would be happening if I just showed— like, just was like, yeah, and just was myself. And I went out and I was my silly self, and then you go and it all goes away, and then you're like, that's me.
And it's a life changer.
Oh yeah, when you let go and you're like, here you go, take it or leave it, whether you like it or not. Simple as it can be. It's like, why hold back? You get— you can own your own life. Just have fun and be yourself and don't worry about the rest. It all falls into place.
You will never do great things if you hold yourself back. The faster you understand who you are, what that looks like, and you have the confidence to express it, that's when great things start to happen. I often get asked in interviews and questions, what would I give advice to my 20-year-old self? And normally I don't have a lot of things to say because I don't live with regret. I'm really happy where I'm at now, and that's accumulation of all the things that have happened in my life. But if there was one thing that I would tell myself going back is to just believe more. To have more self-confidence, to take that idea that I had and do something with it. And I think we all have these ideas inside ourselves, we have these things that we want to express, these things we want to create, the song you want to write, the business you want to start, whatever it is, you have that thing inside you and you don't know how to articulate it well because you've never done it before, because you're afraid, you don't have the skill set, you don't have the connections, you've never done it before. There's a lot of nervousness, and so that fear prevents you from getting started. That fear prevents you from doing it. If I look at my YouTube channel, when I started it, there was profiles of successful entrepreneurs, it was me answering questions from different people, entrepreneurs writing in, and I was consistent-ish. And then when I started taking it seriously, that's when I started getting better, that's when I started discovering myself, that's when I found my voice. And you can learn from all these other people and model success, I'm a big fan of it, But at the end of the day, you have to find the thing that works for you, and that comes from practicing. So when you have that next thought, when you have that next idea, when you have that next thing that you want to do, don't just sit on it. Get tired of sitting on things. Get tired of just building up a list of to-dos that never get done. I want people to look at my videos and say, "That Evan Carmichael made that." We've developed that style now. People will look at it, it's not just the logo, and it's not just the top 10 rules. People will look at a video and know that this is the style that I want. This is the style that I made. I want you to find that. I want you to stop fitting in. I want you to stop being vanilla. I want you to go more aggressively in on yourself and what you can do and take those ideas that you have and start to express them. And understand at the beginning, it's not going to be perfect. You're going to make a lot of mistakes. You won't find your path yet. It may start by copying other people, but as you do it more, as you build the consistency up, you will find a unique path that has never been taken before. And the more you get used to building up the confidence and courage to follow that path, the bigger that path becomes and the more success awaits you at the end of the road. So the question of the day today is, I'm curious, what is uniquely you in your business? What would people look at and say, that is unique to you? What's your trademark? What is the thing that you bring that's so different? I'm super curious to find out. Leave it down in the comments below. I also wanna give a quick shout out to Aviv Oren. Aviv, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word. Really, really, really means a lot to me, and I hope you're enjoying the read. Thank you guys again for watching. I hope you have an amazing day. I believe in you and hope you continue to believe in yourself, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of en-espresso. I wake up every morning, espresso keep me going.
Don't become like a cult. Like, don't just like me. Be a fan of everyone. You can like Rihanna's music and mine and Gaga's. It's okay. You don't have to be like, "I'm a Jessie J fan." You know? And my mum and dad would never let me put posters on the wall because they were like, "Be you. Be inspired, but don't become anyone else." Which is why I think as an artist I was very, very— the one thing that I was very proud of was when I first came out that no one compared me to anyone. I think you can tell when someone's idolized somebody sometimes, and I think it's good to be inspired, but don't become somebody. Be yourself. Just always be yourself. Always. Whatever people say about you, whatever people believe that is true that isn't about you, trust me, life is not worth living feeling sad and down and lonely. Just always be true to who you are. You are.
I'm more worried now about being true to myself and being honest. And, you know, maybe 10 years ago I would have not done a video like She Wolf, but now it's something I feel like doing, you know? So why am I going to deprive myself from or deny myself the possibility of expressing the way I feel? I want to express myself freely. I don't want to be in a golden cage anymore. I don't want to be put behind bars. I think this life is so brief, and we spend it sometimes imposing over ourselves so many limitations and obstacles that don't allow us to grow as we would like to, you know. And yes, I feel, you know, very much like a woman, and this time around, I wanted to show my legs. I never showed my legs for 20 years. And I always did all my performances with long pants. Believe it or not, I never showed my legs. And one day I looked at them and I said, "Hey, they're not bad. They're kind of short, but they take me to places. I think it's now or never." You know? So I did it. It's about time to really embrace my individuality. And my freedom as a woman, as a person. And that's a message that I encourage to other women. And that doesn't mean necessarily letting yourself be objectified, because that means satisfying the desires of other people. You know, I say satisfy your own desires, you know, and live your life to the fullest, because es short.
I'm not pretending to be something that I am not or pretending to be this goody-two-shoes or whatever. I'm just being myself. And I think that, you know, then nobody can be disappointed in who I am as a person, or I don't feel like like I have to hide or pretend because I'm not, I'm just being Zendaya, you know? And I'm just going through life and learning out, you know, learning how to be a young woman. And it just, you know, and I have that responsibility. I think it's a responsibility. Is it a little bit of a weight sometimes? Absolutely, but it's a responsibility.
