Episode 84: Forward is a Pace - with Confidence Coach, Trish Blackwell

I love to share podcasts that I find helpful or informative, just as I love it when you share with me the ones that are favorites of yours. You never know when something you hear today might become that “Ah ha” moment that changes your life for the better. That is my hope for you when you tune in to my podcasts. Podcasting was not on my radar until a friend asked if I had listened to Trish Blackwell’s “The Confidence Podcast”. I fell in love not only with Trish and what she had to say but with the idea of podcasting in general. That was the “Ah ha” moment where I felt like I could make a difference and impact the lives of many people by creating a Direction Not Perfection podcast. Today I had the honor of interviewing my podcast hero.

Trish, who is the creator of “The Confidence Podcast” as well as “The Confidence College”was not always a confident person. She is passionate about confidence now because it was a huge struggle in her life. She hid her insecurities by being obsessed with achievement, until she hit rock bottom as a damaged shell of a person. God brought her to a place of healing and freedom and now her mission is to help other women step into confidence and abundance and find freedom from the invisible prison of self-doubt. She wants them to realize that “Transformation comes when we learn to take our thoughts captive and we learn to see ourselves as the victorious, beloved women that God created us to be”.

Being confident, just like being healthy and fit is not a “check the box and be done forever” thing and it does not come overnight. It is a journey that isn’t easy but can be done with a lot of hard work, one step at a time. No matter how many steps you have to take to get to a place of freedom, it doesn’t matter. Every step forward is a step that’s better. Joy Meyers says, “We may not be where we want to be, but we aren’t where we were yesterday”. As we go on that journey, we become freer and have more joy, more peace and more kindness. Celebrate that progress and be encouraged by your successes along the way. You are in a much better place today. Grasp the champagne moments of every win.

On the road to becoming more confident we must realize the importance of repetition. It is okay, it doesn’t make us week. It makes us strong to stick to something and know we are going to fail and pick ourselves back up. Repetition is the gateway to mastery, not 10 times, 10,000 times. Trish learned this teaching herself to kick a soccer ball with her left foot rather than her right. She did it over and over, counting up thousands of kicks and eventually had it down. The same thing can be said about our minds. Trish would get discouraged with how many times it would take her to mentally connect something from her head to her heart. She knew things but couldn’t implement them. For the lesson to sink in she needed to do the hard, emotional work again and again and see the patience she was building and the confidence she was strengthening. The learning she was doing was like kicking a ball a thousand times with her left foot, so she was strong enough to do get back on the field. There was no quick fix. It took time and repetition.

College of Confidence

Trish has created an educational platform containing courses on confidence and life coaching. Live group coaching sessions and a 24-7 forum for support are just a part of what is offered. She wanted coaching to be affordable and accessible. You need coaching more than just once or twice. It is something you will work on your whole life because “every level has a new devil”. There is always a new challenge and you need to learn a new step of confidence to conquer it. When in college you are there to learn. As women we have been raised to think we need to look like we have it all together and know what we are doing. Trish wants to convey to women th