Let's Talk About Confidence

John M Walsh
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  • 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. 14h ago

    How To Have Difficult Conversations With Confidence

    Send us Fan Mail There’s a particular kind of stress that comes from a conversation you keep replaying in your head. You know roughly what you want to say, you can imagine every possible reply, and yet the one person who needs to hear it still hasn’t. I’m John M. Walsh, and I’m taking a clear look at why we put off difficult conversations at work and at home, even when the issue is surprisingly ordinary: a boundary that keeps getting crossed, a decision that keeps getting delayed, a comment that stung, a money question, a “no” someone will not like.  We dig into what’s really underneath avoidance. It’s rarely a lack of the right words. More often it’s the fear of what happens once the conversation begins: defensiveness, rejection, humiliation, anger, or real consequences with a manager or colleague who holds influence. That’s why the confidence you actually need is not the swagger of “nailing it”. It’s the steadier skill of staying present when the response is awkward and you cannot control the other half of the dialogue.  I share practical communication tools you can use immediately: start with information rather than a confrontation, speak earlier while there’s less resentment attached, and separate observable facts from the meaning you’ve concluded. We also look at how to avoid turning the moment into a seven minute speech, how to invite a response that gives you useful information, and how to set boundaries by focusing on what you will do next rather than trying to control someone else’s behaviour. I even touch on the hardest version of all: the conversations we keep avoiding with ourselves, where clarity forces a decision.  If you want better workplace communication, healthier relationships, and more confident boundaries, listen now, then subscribe, share the episode with someone who needs it, and leave a review with the one sentence you’re finally ready to say. 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 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

  2. Sep 2

    You’re Capable of More: What’s Really Stopping You?

    Send us Fan Mail You can feel it, can’t you? A next step you keep circling, a version of your life you sense is possible, and a quiet drag that pulls you back to the safe middle. We get specific about what that drag really is, and why most people spend years fighting the wrong battle. The aim is not hype or hustle, it’s a practical way to reach your potential and build real confidence that holds up on a wet Tuesday night. We start by dismantling the myth that excellence is reserved for superstars. The most useful lesson from elite performers is not their talent, it’s their willingness to commit to invisible work for years. Then we bring it closer to home: the barman, the baker, the colleague who is simply brilliant at their craft. That “glint” is what mastery looks like when skill is matched with genuine care, and it’s available in ordinary jobs and ordinary lives. From there, we give you a clean framework for personal development and career growth: the three blockers that stop progress are knowledge, skill, or belief. A knowledge gap needs learning and discipline. A skill gap needs uncomfortable reps in real situations. A belief gap needs evidence, gathered by acting first, because confidence is not what you need before you act, it’s what you earn by acting. If you want a clear next move, this is your roadmap. Subscribe, share this with someone who’s stuck, and leave a review with the one step you’re taking this week. 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 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

  3. Aug 26

    What If Nervousness Is Proof You Care

    Send us Fan Mail Nerves have a way of arriving like a storm, a meeting turns your way, a hard email lands, a conversation gets serious, and you are already reacting before you realise you have a choice. We built this short, practical guide around one deceptively simple move that changes that entire chain in real time: a deliberate one-second pause. That tiny gap is where you stop fear from driving, get your mind back online, and choose what you do next.  We walk through the full method step by step. First comes the breath, not as a platitude but as a lever: one slow exhale helps downshift the body’s alarm system so you can think clearly again. Then we use a well-evidenced psychological tool called affect labelling, naming the sensation plainly: “This is nervousness.” Finally, we reframe the meaning of the feeling with a question that cuts through self-judgement: what is this feeling telling me? Most of the time, it is telling you something oddly hopeful: you care, something matters, your values are on the line.  We also talk about why trying to suppress fear often backfires, how confidence is built after action rather than before it, and how the same one-second pause can stop you either retreating into silence or snapping into a defensive reaction. By the end, you’ll have a pocket-sized confidence tool you can use anywhere, unnoticed: pause, breathe, name it, reframe it, act anyway. If this helps, subscribe for more, share it with someone who is facing a big moment, and leave a review with the situation where you plan to try the one-second pause. 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. Subscribe for more grounded conversations on confidence, share this with someone playing the long game, and leave a review with the skill you are building next. 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 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

  4. Aug 19

    Success Doesn't Remove Self-Doubt

    Send us Fan Mail Watching someone build confidence in real time is far more interesting than hearing slogans about “believing in yourself”. I sit down with Stuart Cuzner, now a partner at Menzies, a top 20 UK accountancy firm, to trace the long, quiet path from a teenager who skipped A levels and university to someone leading teams, advising clients, and owning the weight of partner-level decisions. We talk about the apprenticeship route in accountancy, what AAT and ACCA really do for your skills, and why a lack of traditional credentials does not have to cap your career. Stuart shares how it felt to be the note-taker in meetings, how he earned progression step by step, and the moment he discovered his ACCA was broadly equivalent to a degree, giving him a new kind of satisfaction and confidence grounded in evidence. The conversation gets honest about imposter syndrome, especially after a merger into a bigger firm. Stuart explains the “not good enough” feeling, how a mentor and trusted colleagues helped, and why learning and relationships are the fastest way to rebuild self-trust. We also explore the boring middle, the part where growth feels slow, and how that shows up today in business development, networking, and public speaking. Then we connect it all to an unexpected place: running. From hiding on a treadmill in the garage to training for the London to Brighton 100k, Stuart shows that confidence is built the same way every time, with small steps that compound. 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. Subscribe for more grounded conversations on confidence, share this with someone playing the long game, and leave a review with the skill you are building next. 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 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

  5. Aug 12

    The Bit Where You Want To Quit

    Send us Fan Mail The most dangerous moment in any change is rarely the crisis. It’s the quiet Tuesday when nothing is obviously getting better and you start to wonder if you’re wasting your time. We’re near the end of Season 3 of Nervous Not Broken, so I want to sit with the part nobody posts about: the boring middle, where motivation fades, progress looks flat, and people drop out even though the work is actually doing its job. We unpack why confidence and nervous system regulation don’t improve in a neat, day by day line. You’ll hear why researchers describe a plateau of latent potential, how skills become automatic through silent stacking, and why the period that feels least productive can be where the deepest learning is happening. I also name the “threshold” moment: that wave of doubt around week three or four (or month two or three) where the urge to quit can peak right as new patterns are consolidating. Then we get practical. I share five grounded ways to move through the middle without resorting to grand resets or dramatic gestures: measure showing up, make the process your identity, look for tiny signals, lower the bar without guilt, and tell one trusted person where you are so you have a witness to your momentum. If you’re working on anxiety, confidence building, exposure therapy, habit formation, or simply trying to become steadier under pressure, this is the episode that helps you stop misreading silence as failure. If this lands for you, subscribe so you don’t miss the finale, share it with someone who’s stuck in the middle, and leave a review. What are you in the middle of right now? 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 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

  6. Aug 5

    The People Around You Shape More Than You Think

    Send us Fan Mail A terminal diagnosis changes the way you hear the word “confidence”. When Ron Cox joined us, he brought the headline results (helping turn a $2.5m deficit into a business generating $1m a day) but he also brought the human story behind them: how facing mortality forces you to get honest about time, priorities, and what is actually worth building. We talk about where confidence really comes from, and why your family, your mentors, and your friends can either strengthen your backbone or quietly drain it.  We dig into the leadership mechanics Ron uses to build high-performance teams and rebuild workplace culture: moving beyond command-and-control, choosing humility over authority, and making “people first” more than a slogan. Ron shares practical tools like mapping roles with a “bus seats” exercise, using values and behavioural profiles to get the right people in the right seats, and measuring both customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. If you care about organisational turnaround, employee retention, and scaling through mergers and acquisitions, you’ll hear how values alignment can make growth easier rather than messier.  Then the conversation turns deeply personal. Ron walks us through being told he might die more than once, including Wilson’s disease and a later pancreatic cancer scare that was ultimately linked to medication and severe pancreatitis. The through-line is resilience: discern the situation, go back to your tribe, and let the right people hold you accountable. We also unpack the emotional and cultural reality of selling a legacy business, and why it can feel like watching someone else raise your child.  If this resonates, subscribe, share the episode with a leader who needs it, and leave us a review so more people can find the show. What’s one change you could make this week to build a stronger tribe around 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 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

  7. Jul 29

    When Failure Hits, How To Recover

    Send us Fan Mail Somewhere behind most “confidence problems” sits a quieter story: you tried something, it went wrong, and you never quite did it again. I’m John M. Walsh, and today I’m getting honest about the moment when the fear comes true and the hard thing doesn’t work. Not the neat, motivational version of failure, but the kind that leaves you replaying it in the shower, hearing a harsh verdict in your own voice, and slowly retreating from the risks that used to make your life bigger. We break down what a setback actually does to the mind and nervous system: the replay loop, the identity-level conclusion, and the long, careful avoidance that can last for years. I explain why the brain clings to negative experiences for survival reasons, how the spotlight effect tricks you into thinking everyone still remembers, and why modern visibility and highlight-reel culture make ordinary mistakes feel permanent. If you’ve felt shame after a presentation, interview, meeting, rejection, or creative knock, you’ll recognise the pattern quickly. Then we move into recovery tools you can use straight away: name what happened in plain facts, deflate the imaginary audience, go again but go small and go soon, separate useful lessons from self-attack, and interrupt rumination by changing your state and giving attention a better job. The deeper takeaway is simple and powerful: confidence is not “nothing ever goes wrong”; it is the earned evidence that when it does, you can handle it and come back. If this helps, follow or subscribe, share it with someone who’s been knocked, and leave a review so more people can find it. 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 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

  8. Jul 22

    The Invisible Child In All Of Us: How Confidence Begins

    Send us Fan Mail The child who sits quietly and hopes not to be noticed is often the child who needs the most care. I’m joined by educator and author Bridget Kengler, who spent her early school years feeling invisible, then walked into her own classroom and made a deliberate promise: no child in her care should feel unseen again.  We talk about what low confidence can look like in real life: fear of being called on, perfectionism, and the loneliness of blending into the background. Bridget shares the surprisingly small moments that changed everything for her, including a teacher who listened, remembered what mattered to her and publicly recognised her effort even when she “failed”. That kind of encouragement is not sentimental, it is practical. It plants a seed that can become an internal voice over time.  From there we get concrete. Bridget explains how she builds connection and trust with every child, why she never forces participation, and how morning meetings create a safe routine for student voice. We also dig into partnering with parents, including a simple question that helped one of her son’s teachers connect with him for the first time. And we widen the lens to adults: how confidence grows through hard things, why stepping into the uncomfortable matters, and how taking the first small step can change the shape of your story.  If you care about child confidence, classroom culture, encouragement, resilience and finding your voice, you’ll take away ideas you can use straight away. Subscribe, share this with a teacher or parent who needs it, and leave us a review. What’s one moment of encouragement you still remember? 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 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

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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
    2026
  • Episodes
    39
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Let's Talk About Confidence
  • Show Website
    Let's Talk About Confidence