Let's Talk About Confidence

John M Walsh
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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.

Episodes

  1. 4D AGO

    Pressure-Proof Confidence

    The moments that matter most rarely feel calm. When the room is watching, consequences are real, and your heart is thumping in your ears, practice confidence often falls apart. We dig into that performance gap and share a practical, science-backed path to make your skills travel from safe rooms to high-stakes arenas. We start with Sarah’s journey from silent manager to someone who can speak up in senior meetings, revealing how solid habits still crumble when visibility, hierarchy, and uncertainty spike. I share my first board presentation and the reframe that stripped away mystique: they weren’t dissecting my every word, they were moving through an agenda. From there we map the biology of pressure. The amygdala flags social threat, the sympathetic system floods you with adrenaline, the prefrontal cortex goes dim, working memory shrinks, and attention tunnels. That’s not weakness; it’s human. Then we get specific. You’ll learn the five mechanisms that derail performance and a framework to train pressure tolerance: gradual exposure across rising stakes, simulating pressure with audience, time limits, evaluation, artificial consequences, and elevated heart rate. We show why performance dips at first and why that’s the point. We practise recovery lines so stumbles don’t end the attempt. We reframe threat to challenge using real evidence rather than wishful thinking, and we separate skill learning from pressure training so your brain isn’t overloaded. Finally, we share six execution strategies for the moment itself: accept the physical response, use micro actions, externalise attention, recall your evidence, commit to imperfection, and have a recovery plan if you freeze. High-stakes confidence isn’t the absence of anxiety; it’s the ability to act while anxious. Each imperfect rep becomes proof you can perform under load, and that evidence compounds into durable confidence when the stakes are real. If this helped, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s training for a big moment, and leave a quick review telling us the one pressure element you’ll add this week. 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 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

    33 min

  2. 4D AGO

    Quiet Gains: How Confidence Really Grows

    You've pushed through the boring middle bit. You haven't quit. But how do you know if it's actually working? In Episode 3 of Confidence Unlocked, John M Walsh reveals what the shift feels like when confidence genuinely starts to build - and why most people miss it entirely because they're looking for the wrong signs. Here's the truth: there's no breakthrough moment. No sudden transformation. The shift is quieter than that. And if you don't know what to look for, you might quit right when things are starting to work. In this episode, you'll discover: What the confidence shift actually feels like (hint: it's not what you expect)The 7 signs that prove confidence is building - even when it doesn't feel like itWhy progress is inconsistent and what that really means for your brainThe two mistakes people make when they start seeing resultsWhen to increase the challenge - and by exactly how much (20-30%, not 200%)The "minimum viable practice" strategy for maintaining momentum when life gets busyWhy each new level has its own difficult middle phaseFollow Rachel's journey as she moves from small assertions in team meetings to high-stakes situations with senior leaders - and learn the exact progression framework that works. This episode gives you the tracking tools to prove to yourself that the process is working, even on days when doubt tells you otherwise. #ConfidenceBuilding #ProgressSigns #SelfImprovement #PersonalGrowth #ConfidenceUnlocked #TrackingProgress #MindsetShift #JohnMWalsh www.breakthroughchange.com 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 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

    11 min

  3. 4D AGO

    Why People Give Up and How to Get Through The Boring Middle

    Why do 74% of people fail to build lasting confidence? They quit during the "boring middle bit" - that brutal stretch where the novelty has worn off but results aren't visible yet. In this episode of Confidence Unlocked, John M Walsh draws on 27 years of experience working with 34,000 people to reveal exactly what happens during this critical phase - and how to push through when everything tells you to stop. You'll discover: Why the middle phase feels so difficult (and why that's actually a sign of progress)What's happening in your brain during those repetitions that feel pointlessThe "evidence log" technique that keeps you going when motivation disappearsHow Rachel, a project manager, nearly quit at attempt 47 - and what changedWhy counting attempts matters more than measuring outcomesThe 5 survival strategies used by the 26% who reach high performanceIf you've ever started building confidence only to abandon it weeks later, this episode explains exactly why - and gives you the tools to break the pattern. Based on research into high-performing teams and real client transformations, this isn't motivational fluff. It's the practical psychology of persistence. #ConfidenceBuilding #PersonalDevelopment #Persistence #SelfImprovement #Mindset #HighPerformance #BoringMiddleBit #ConfidenceUnlocked www.breakthroughchangemanagement.com 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 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

    29 min

  4. FEB 10

    Confidence, Without The Hype

    Most advice about confidence sounds great until you try it and nothing changes. We cut through the noise with a practical, evidence-led path that treats confidence as something you build, not something you wait to feel. After 27 years working with teams and leaders, John Walsh shares why belief follows behaviour—and how small, repeated acts of slight courage create the proof your brain can’t ignore. We start by separating confidence from self-esteem, then map three levels of development: foundation for unshakable basics, application for a life that fits who you are, and excellence for deliberate stretch. You’ll hear three grounded case studies—Sarah learning to assert in meetings, Marcus tracking uncomfortable business development actions, and Janet staircasing from internal talks to industry keynotes. The common thread is simple and demanding: track actions, not outcomes; start embarrassingly small; repeat until fear becomes background noise. We also unpack six forces that make this hard: early neural wiring, the vicious circle of low confidence, the social comparison trap, the confidence–competence disconnect, genetic sensitivity without destiny, and the hidden bottleneck of boredom tolerance. Then we get specific about survival tactics for the boring middle bit—making repetitions meaningful, recording completions to reveal invisible progress, using social accountability, and building boredom tolerance like a muscle. Expect to spot where confidence truly matters day to day: at work, in relationships, and in personal disciplines no one sees. The takeaway is clear and actionable: evidence beats affirmations, and the ledger of proof grows one small act at a time. If this resonates, subscribe, share with someone who needs a quiet nudge, and leave a review telling us the one small action you’ll repeat this week. 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 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

    24 min
  • 4 Episodes

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
    4
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Let's Talk About Confidence
  • Show Website
    Let's Talk About Confidence