I’m a big fan of Lisa Bilyeu’s YouTube channel Women of Impact, on which she interviews women at the top of their fields with such humility and approachability that you can’t help but admire her. So when I saw she was releasing a book called Radical Confidence:10 No-BS Lessons On Becoming the Hero of Your Own Life, I knew I wanted to pick it up.
Radical Confidence is a breezy entrance to the self-help isle that is part memoir, part confidence advice guide. Bilyeu invites you in for a cup of tea to tell you the story of her transition from shy geeky Greek girl to bored-but-supportive housewife to co-founder of Quest Nutrition to badass Youtube sensation. She interweaves 10 lessons she has learned about herself and the nature of confidence with these stories.
Section headings are named things like
- I Can Change My Life
- I Can Bet on Myself
- I Can Trust My Gut
- I Can Rescue Myself
and chapters combine hilarious recountings of some of Bilyeu’s most vulnerable moments with helpful lessons about things like growth mindset, playing to one’s strengths, believing in oneself, and realizing that nobody is coming to save you. This is a book I desperately needed in my 20s.
One of Bilyeu’s superpowers is her relatability. On her Youtube channel, her authenticity and candor invite you in, and it feels like you’re already friends. Bilyeu’s written voice perfectly captures this quality in the book as well; the whole book is written like a pep talk from your college best friend coaching you through a rough time in your life.
I suspect the voice was also enhanced by the fact that I read the audiobook version. I love to get an audiobook read by the author, especially for nonfiction books. Though Bilyue is clearly not an experienced reader, and in the first chapter I was worried this was going to be a hindrance to the content, she finds her rhythm a little way into the book. Ultimately, I found myself very glad for the fact that I was listening to the book, especially during some of the more intimate chapters. I absolutely loved the written voice, but I could imagine the rah-rah tone might not be for everyone.
I’ve been on quite the journey of quiet introspection since finishing my PhD last year, and I’ve been doing a lot of reading and a lot of work on myself. At the stage of my life that this is hitting me, I’m not sure most the explicitly-enumerated lessons the book offered were especially novel to me at my current moment, however the insights in this book are evergreen and serve as excellent reminders of our own value and worth. Bilyeu’s personal experiences offer lessons beyond those explicitly called out as the “10 lessons” in the subtitle, and the stories alone are worth picking up.
