Let's Talk About Confidence

John M Walsh
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Management

Let's Talk About Confidence examines the one capability that determines whether you'll attempt what matters most—and whether you'll persist when it gets hard. Not a personality trait. Not positive thinking. A learnable behaviour built through repetition, pressure, and consequence. Confidence isn't something you're born with—it's something you build through boring repetition, sustained pressure, and real-world consequences. Hosted by John M Walsh, this podcast explores how actual confidence develops in adults who've been tested. From founders who've rebuilt after failure, to leaders managing high-stakes decisions, to professionals who've had to perform without feeling ready. These aren't motivational stories. They're honest conversations about: How confidence is built (the unglamorous truth)How it's lost (and what that reveals)How it's rebuilt (often stronger than before)How it shows up in high-pressure situations Each episode examines confidence as an integrated adult skill—through the lens of performance, leadership, persuasion, credibility, competence, and reinvention. For anyone interested in the behavioural reality of confidence, not the highlight reels. For professionals, leaders, and anyone building something significant who knows confidence is the bottleneck—but wants the unglamorous truth about how it's actually developed, not another pep talk.

  1. 2d ago

    Confidence Comes After You Speak, Not Before

    Send us Fan Mail Your body knows exactly when the stakes rise. The heart speeds up, the mouth dries out, the mind starts writing escape plans and suddenly all your competence is trapped behind a nervous system alarm. That’s where Helen von Dadelszen lives professionally: she’s a communication and vocal coach, a speaker, and the author of Courageous Action, and she helps smart, capable people close the gap between what they know and what they can actually say in the room.  We dig into the practical side of confidence under pressure, starting with a simple reframe: nerves are normal, but they are not a stop sign. Helen explains how to map your own triggers and symptoms so you can interpret them with accuracy rather than fear, then choose tools that work for your body. We talk breathing for regulation, quick grounding techniques you can do at a table, and why slowing your speaking pace can instantly make you sound more confident while also calming both you and your audience.  We also get into “communicating without pretending”: setting an intention for how you want to be perceived and aligning voice, body language, pauses, and pace so it still feels like you. Helen shares a vulnerable story about pitching in French at a networking event, plus a brilliant method for practising without cringing at recordings of yourself. If you’ve been waiting to feel ready before you speak up, this is your nudge towards courageous action, one small step at a time.  You can find more information about Helen here: Book: https://courageousaction.ch/Me: https://academy.presentpotential.ch/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helen-von-dadelszen/Subscribe for more practical confidence tools, share this with someone who dreads high pressure conversations, and leave a review if it helps. What’s the first situation where you want to treat nerves as a go sign? Let’s Talk About Confidence is an educational podcast exploring confidence, behaviour, leadership, communication, and personal performance. The views shared are intended for general information and development purposes only and should not be considered medical, psychological, legal, or financial advice. While practical tools and techniques are discussed, listeners are encouraged to seek appropriately qualified professional support where needed. Opinions expressed by guests are their own. All content © Breakthrough Change Management Ltd. Support the show ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 SUBSCRIBE & FOLLOW Never miss an episode - subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. 💬 CONNECT WITH JOHN LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/johnmwalshbreakthroughchange Website: www.breakthroughchange.com 📣 SHARE YOUR STORY Building confidence? Share your progress using #ConfidenceUnlocked or email info@breakthroughchange.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

    42 min

  2. Jun 17

    Nervous, Not Broken: The Truth About Confidence at Work

    Send us Fan Mail You know the feeling: you’re fine until the meeting starts, the presentation slide appears, or you have to say the thing you’ve been rehearsing for days. Your chest tightens, your mouth dries up, and then the worst part arrives, the story that follows: maybe I’m not confident, maybe I’m not cut out for this, maybe there’s something wrong with me. I want to challenge that. Nervous is a sensation. Broken is a conclusion. And confusing the two creates a lot of needless suffering at work. I trace what is actually happening in the nervous system, from the amygdala’s threat scanning to why uncertainty, visibility, and fear of judgement hit so hard in modern workplaces. I also name the three pressure multipliers I see everywhere right now: relentless social media comparison, the missing “learning by being in the room” that remote work can reduce, and our new talent for avoiding discomfort through messages, emails, and delay. Avoidance feels like relief, but it quietly trains your brain to fear the situation more next time. Then we get practical. I share five tools you can use immediately for work anxiety, public speaking nerves, and leadership confidence: name the emotion, ask what your nervous system is responding to, make the threat specific, breathe out longer than you breathe in, act before you feel ready, and keep an evidence log so your brain stores proof of courage. If you try just one small avoided action this week and write it down, you’ll start building real confidence the only way it lasts: through evidence. If this helps, subscribe so you don’t miss the rest of the season, share it with someone who’s been calling themselves “not confident”, and leave a review with the tool you’re going to try first. Let’s Talk About Confidence is an educational podcast exploring confidence, behaviour, leadership, communication, and personal performance. The views shared are intended for general information and development purposes only and should not be considered medical, psychological, legal, or financial advice. While practical tools and techniques are discussed, listeners are encouraged to seek appropriately qualified professional support where needed. Opinions expressed by guests are their own. All content © Breakthrough Change Management Ltd. Support the show ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 SUBSCRIBE & FOLLOW Never miss an episode - subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. 💬 CONNECT WITH JOHN LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/johnmwalshbreakthroughchange Website: www.breakthroughchange.com 📣 SHARE YOUR STORY Building confidence? Share your progress using #ConfidenceUnlocked or email info@breakthroughchange.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

    28 min

  3. Jun 10

    Why Competent People Get Stuck

    Send us Fan Mail You can be competent, reliable, even highly paid, and still feel like you are fading at work. I want to end season two with the difference that changes everything: being good at your job versus being alive in your work. One keeps you progressing on paper; the other gives you energy, meaning, and a sense that your days are pointing somewhere you actually care about. I unpack the competence trap, that moment where you succeed so consistently that you stop asking whether the path still fits. You will hear the story of James, a finance director with a solid reputation and a quiet grey sense of going through the motions, and why “I’m good at this” can become a reason to stay stuck. We also dig into the neuroscience of hedonic adaptation, and why promotions, praise, and pay rises quickly become the new normal, leaving you chasing the next achievement without lasting fulfilment. From there, I give you a practical lens using self-determination theory: autonomy, competence as growth, and connection. If your work starves those needs, it makes sense that you feel bored despite being busy, hit constant Sunday dread, or feel exhausted in ways sleep cannot fix. I share ways to move forward without reckless leaps: audit your current role for small pockets of aliveness, run low-risk experiments through side projects or volunteering, and prepare for the real costs of choosing meaning. If this lands with you, subscribe, share it with someone who needs the nudge, and leave a review to help the show reach more people. What would “alive in your work” look like for you? Let’s Talk About Confidence is an educational podcast exploring confidence, behaviour, leadership, communication, and personal performance. The views shared are intended for general information and development purposes only and should not be considered medical, psychological, legal, or financial advice. While practical tools and techniques are discussed, listeners are encouraged to seek appropriately qualified professional support where needed. Opinions expressed by guests are their own. All content © Breakthrough Change Management Ltd. Support the show ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 SUBSCRIBE & FOLLOW Never miss an episode - subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. 💬 CONNECT WITH JOHN LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/johnmwalshbreakthroughchange Website: www.breakthroughchange.com 📣 SHARE YOUR STORY Building confidence? Share your progress using #ConfidenceUnlocked or email info@breakthroughchange.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

    15 min

  4. Jun 3

    Stop Apologising For Existing

    Send us Fan Mail What if every decision you make is less about the outcome and more about who you’re becoming? We dive into the heart of confident living by reframing choices as identity-building moments, showing how small, honest decisions can rewire your brain for alignment rather than approval. From the science of why tough calls feel painful to the subtle conditioning that keeps you apologising for existing, we pull apart the habits that shrink your life and replace them with tools that expand it. We unpack the paradox of choice and the brain’s conflict monitoring system, explaining why delay feels safer but quietly trains you to need permission. You’ll learn practical language shifts to stop over-explaining and start choosing cleanly—no aggression, no theatrics, just clarity. We explore three core decision types that build sustainable confidence: boundary decisions that protect time and energy, direction decisions that move you forward without guarantees, and identity decisions that anchor you to your values when no one is watching. Along the way, we challenge the spotlight effect and the myth that everyone is judging your every move; most people are too busy worrying about their own. By the end, you’ll have a simple weekly practice to make one avoided decision and watch how your sense of self changes when you back it. Expect grounded psychology, usable scripts, and a compassionate push to stop waiting for certainty. If you’re ready to trade permission-seeking for ownership and turn confidence from a feeling into a way of living, press play and take yourself seriously—kindly, clearly, and without apology. If this helped, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs it, and leave a review with the one decision you’re making today. Let’s Talk About Confidence is an educational podcast exploring confidence, behaviour, leadership, communication, and personal performance. The views shared are intended for general information and development purposes only and should not be considered medical, psychological, legal, or financial advice. While practical tools and techniques are discussed, listeners are encouraged to seek appropriately qualified professional support where needed. Opinions expressed by guests are their own. All content © Breakthrough Change Management Ltd. Support the show ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 SUBSCRIBE & FOLLOW Never miss an episode - subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. 💬 CONNECT WITH JOHN LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/johnmwalshbreakthroughchange Website: www.breakthroughchange.com 📣 SHARE YOUR STORY Building confidence? Share your progress using #ConfidenceUnlocked or email info@breakthroughchange.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

    15 min

  5. May 27

    Outgrowing People

    Send us Fan Mail Growth is supposed to feel empowering, so why does it sometimes make your friendships feel heavy? We talk about the uncomfortable truth that as your confidence rises, your boundaries tighten, and your standards improve, some people will celebrate you while others will quietly resist you. If you’ve ever been told “you’ve changed” as an insult, or felt pressure to stay convenient, this conversation puts language to what’s really happening and helps you stop taking it so personally.  We dig into the psychology behind the pushback, including how your brain uses close relationships as a social baseline and why your evolution can create discomfort for others. Then we get practical: the clearest signs someone is holding you back (minimising your wins, punishing your boundaries, leaving you depleted, treating your progress as a threat) and the signs someone is growing with you (curiosity, honest support, shared standards, celebration without comparison). You’ll also hear a story about Marcus, whose long-term friendships started to fade when he stopped dimming himself to fit in.  Finally, we walk through what to do with what you learn: how to have the conversation when a relationship is worth saving, how to reduce investment without drama when it isn’t, and how to give uncertain connections time without ignoring months-long patterns. If letting go brings grief, we make space for that too and show why it’s often the doorway to relationships that match who you’re becoming. Subscribe, share with someone navigating change, and leave a review with the biggest sign you’ve outgrown a relationship. Let’s Talk About Confidence is an educational podcast exploring confidence, behaviour, leadership, communication, and personal performance. The views shared are intended for general information and development purposes only and should not be considered medical, psychological, legal, or financial advice. While practical tools and techniques are discussed, listeners are encouraged to seek appropriately qualified professional support where needed. Opinions expressed by guests are their own. All content © Breakthrough Change Management Ltd. Support the show ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 SUBSCRIBE & FOLLOW Never miss an episode - subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. 💬 CONNECT WITH JOHN LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/johnmwalshbreakthroughchange Website: www.breakthroughchange.com 📣 SHARE YOUR STORY Building confidence? Share your progress using #ConfidenceUnlocked or email info@breakthroughchange.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

    13 min

  6. May 20

    Why Saying No Feels So Difficult

    Send us Fan Mail Two letters can quietly take over your life. When you build your identity around being helpful and dependable, “yes” starts to feel like the only acceptable answer, even when you are exhausted, stretched thin, and resentful. We talk about why that happens, how it shows up for high performers, and the real cost of living by other people’s priorities instead of your own.  We unpack the psychology behind over-committing, including cognitive load and why too many obligations drain your attention and decision-making. You’ll hear a story about Rachel, a senior manager who becomes the automatic choice for every tough task, until her calendar stops reflecting anything she actually wants. From there, we get practical: what a clear no sounds like, why over-explaining makes your boundaries negotiable, and how a short refusal can be kinder than a reluctant yes that leaks resentment.  We also dig into guilt, conditioning, and a simple neuroscience idea that changes everything: the “90-second rule” for emotional discomfort. If you can sit with the feeling without feeding it with stories, it often passes faster than you think. We close with a decision filter for requests, a few categories that almost always deserve a no, and tactics you can use today like scripting your response and delaying your answer to avoid regret. If this helps, subscribe, share it with someone who needs stronger boundaries, and leave a review with the hardest thing you’re learning to say no to. Let’s Talk About Confidence is an educational podcast exploring confidence, behaviour, leadership, communication, and personal performance. The views shared are intended for general information and development purposes only and should not be considered medical, psychological, legal, or financial advice. While practical tools and techniques are discussed, listeners are encouraged to seek appropriately qualified professional support where needed. Opinions expressed by guests are their own. All content © Breakthrough Change Management Ltd. Support the show ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 SUBSCRIBE & FOLLOW Never miss an episode - subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. 💬 CONNECT WITH JOHN LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/johnmwalshbreakthroughchange Website: www.breakthroughchange.com 📣 SHARE YOUR STORY Building confidence? Share your progress using #ConfidenceUnlocked or email info@breakthroughchange.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

    14 min

  7. May 13

    Your Brain Treats Failure Like Pain And Here Is How To Recover

    Send us Fan Mail One meaningful failure can change how you move through the world. Not in obvious ways like quitting or giving up, but in smaller tells: you hesitate before speaking, you wait for consensus, you overprepare, you keep your head down. You’re still performing, just with the handbrake on. We’re naming that experience for what it is: the confidence crash after failure, and why it can persist long after the original event is “over”. We start with the biology. Significant professional failure and social exposure can activate the brain’s threat response in ways that overlap with physical pain, pushing you towards avoidance and caution before you’ve even decided to be cautious. Then we get into what often does the real long-term damage: the story you build. When a complex situation becomes an identity verdict, confidence doesn’t just dip, it hardens into a new self-definition. We show how to separate facts from interpretation, so you can stop replaying a distorted narrative that keeps reinforcing the crash. From there, we lay out a grounded recovery process in three stages: accurate processing of what actually happened, separating the event from your identity, and graduated re-engagement through manageable actions that rebuild self-trust with evidence. We also call out popular advice that can make things worse when offered too soon, from quick “fail forward” reframes to rushing back into high-stakes situations before your system has settled. If you’ve been through a confidence crack after failure, you’re not broken and you’re not weak. Listen, share this with someone who needs it, and if it helps, subscribe and leave a review so more people can find the tools to rebuild. Let’s Talk About Confidence is an educational podcast exploring confidence, behaviour, leadership, communication, and personal performance. The views shared are intended for general information and development purposes only and should not be considered medical, psychological, legal, or financial advice. While practical tools and techniques are discussed, listeners are encouraged to seek appropriately qualified professional support where needed. Opinions expressed by guests are their own. All content © Breakthrough Change Management Ltd. Support the show ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 SUBSCRIBE & FOLLOW Never miss an episode - subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. 💬 CONNECT WITH JOHN LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/johnmwalshbreakthroughchange Website: www.breakthroughchange.com 📣 SHARE YOUR STORY Building confidence? Share your progress using #ConfidenceUnlocked or email info@breakthroughchange.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

    16 min

  8. May 6

    Why High Achievers Doubt Themselves

    Send us Fan Mail High performers are supposed to feel confident, so why do so many of us quietly feel like we’re bluffing? I take that question seriously and pull apart the mechanics behind it, because the pattern is far more logical than it feels in the moment. If you’ve ever delivered a great result and immediately moved the goalposts, or sat in a meeting convinced you’re the only one who doesn’t quite belong, you’ll recognise what’s happening here. We start with a core distinction: achievement and confidence are not the same thing. I explain hedonic adaptation and how the brain resets your baseline so quickly that big wins rarely become lasting evidence. From there we move into the inner critic, the hyperactive self-evaluation that often comes with high capability, and why imposter syndrome can show up more intensely as you become more visible. The higher you climb, the more scrutiny you feel and the more your nervous system can treat social exposure like genuine threat, which helps explain the exhaustion and burnout that can sit behind a polished exterior. Then we get practical. I share a better architecture for confidence: shifting from outcome confidence to process confidence, separating self-worth from performance, and training yourself to tolerate visibility without letting it hijack your thinking. You’ll leave with a simple weekly practice to start building self-trust that holds up even when results go sideways. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with someone who needs it, and leave a review. What’s one situation where you feel most “on stage”? Let’s Talk About Confidence is an educational podcast exploring confidence, behaviour, leadership, communication, and personal performance. The views shared are intended for general information and development purposes only and should not be considered medical, psychological, legal, or financial advice. While practical tools and techniques are discussed, listeners are encouraged to seek appropriately qualified professional support where needed. Opinions expressed by guests are their own. All content © Breakthrough Change Management Ltd. Support the show ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 SUBSCRIBE & FOLLOW Never miss an episode - subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. 💬 CONNECT WITH JOHN LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/johnmwalshbreakthroughchange Website: www.breakthroughchange.com 📣 SHARE YOUR STORY Building confidence? Share your progress using #ConfidenceUnlocked or email info@breakthroughchange.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

    16 min
See All (28)

About

Let's Talk About Confidence examines the one capability that determines whether you'll attempt what matters most—and whether you'll persist when it gets hard. Not a personality trait. Not positive thinking. A learnable behaviour built through repetition, pressure, and consequence. Confidence isn't something you're born with—it's something you build through boring repetition, sustained pressure, and real-world consequences. Hosted by John M Walsh, this podcast explores how actual confidence develops in adults who've been tested. From founders who've rebuilt after failure, to leaders managing high-stakes decisions, to professionals who've had to perform without feeling ready. These aren't motivational stories. They're honest conversations about: How confidence is built (the unglamorous truth)How it's lost (and what that reveals)How it's rebuilt (often stronger than before)How it shows up in high-pressure situations Each episode examines confidence as an integrated adult skill—through the lens of performance, leadership, persuasion, credibility, competence, and reinvention. For anyone interested in the behavioural reality of confidence, not the highlight reels. For professionals, leaders, and anyone building something significant who knows confidence is the bottleneck—but wants the unglamorous truth about how it's actually developed, not another pep talk.

Information

  • Creator
    John M Walsh
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    28
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Let's Talk About Confidence
  • Show Website
    Let's Talk About Confidence

You Might Also Like