Lead with Confidence Trailer Episode

Welcome to Lead with Confidence Now. I'm your host, Travia Steward, and I'm here to guide you on building your confidence muscle so that you can learn to make decisions with ease, improve your leadership, and enhance your communication skills. Each episode, we will dive into essential skills you need. I will share actionable tips, and you will listen to real stories from other people who have been exactly where you are and where I have been. Whether you're managing a team, kicking off a new venture, or simply aiming to enhance your everyday life, you have found your podcast. So let's kickstart that transformation today and build that confidence muscle together. Let's go. Do you ever feel like your confidence isn't where it needs to be to make a big career move, to be bold enough to ask that person out on a date, or just actually to go through and follow with a personal change in your life? Or do you ever feel like you're holding yourself back? Do you second-guess yourself before taking action and you just talk yourself out of things? Well, my name is Travia Steward and this podcast is Lead with Confidence Now. You see, I'm always evolving and this podcast from its original inception, has always been dedicated to helping leaders who know deep down inside that they're capable of so much more and wanna increase their confidence personally and professionally. With a solid foundation in communications and theater, plus 27 years of guiding reinventions with my one-on-one clients, with my actors, with my friends, with myself, I have seen what a difference confidence makes. See, it's not just about knowing what to do, it's about feeling empowered to act. Because confidence is not a nice thing to have, it's a must-have. And each week we're gonna explore how to build that muscle of confidence, because without it, we get stuck and we give up too easily. But you see, with confidence, we perform with certainty. And on this podcast, this season of it, we're going to dive into the processes and mindsets that ensure that confidence is not just a passing feeling, but a permanent state of being in who you are and who you're showing up to be. Because when you lose belief in yourself, well, that's where I step in. That's where this podcast steps in. So before the official next season drops next week, I don't want to assume that you already knew who I am. If you are a new listener to this podcast, thank you so much for showing up and allowing me to be in your ear today. Right now, I wanna take a moment and share with you how I got here. You see, I worked as a high school teacher, high school theater teacher for a total of 24 years. 11 of those years was in Texas and 13 here in Arizona where I live. I really love teaching and directing and motivating students, like to really, really go for it and achieve big dreams, like set, you know, the bar really, really high. And I love doing that. And every day was a different adventure. But around year 17, I recognized that I was no longer fulfilled or challenged by the job. You know, sometimes August would roll around and I would be less and less excited. I kept doing it because I was comfortable and it was what I knew. It was familiar, and it was a regular paycheck. I knew that I wasn't 100% fulfilled and I wasn't satisfied, and I knew that I wanted more, but I had no idea what that more looked like. And in 2017, I had a conversation with my mother that changed the whole trajectory of my life. It was about 6 months before she passed. She always said that I was a nosy little girl. I always asked too many questions. And so, One day we were visiting down in the New Orleans area and I went to hang out with her and I was like, girl, you live to be 85 years old. You know, what are you most proud of in these 85 years? And she didn't have anything to list that she was proud of. She began to list off all these things, these reasons why she was regretful. She robbed Peter to pay Paul. She worked 2 and 3 jobs. You know, all these things that she did and it just felt like it was regret after regret after regret. And so when I left my mother's house that day, I turned that question on myself. Well, what was I proud of? What had I accomplished? And so I began to really take action and take steps on my mindset first and what I really wanted in life, because I didn't want to be 85 and full of regret. But you see, even though I wanted to make a change, wanting wasn't good enough. It wasn't enough to make me actually take the action. Because even though I wanted to make a change, I didn't. Not for 3 more years, because I didn't believe I could really do it. You see, I was missing that most important must-have ingredient: confidence. I was confident in a lot of things, but I wasn't confident in taking risks that I had no idea how it would turn out. I was confident in things that were like, Oh, I'm about 75, 80% sure I can succeed with that. And that way it wouldn't be quite as devastating, you know, with that 20 or 25%. But I didn't know how to navigate that terrain of, I don't know how this is gonna turn out. And so, because what I was missing, guys, was the huge belief in myself. And you see, what I really wanted was I wanted certainty. I wanted to make sure that my next step was going to be a success. But who knows that? Nobody really knows how things are gonna turn out unless, well, maybe you do. I don't know. Unless you have a magic ball or something like that, or you could see into the future. I couldn't. So during this time, even after having that profound conversation with my mother, I kept teaching. For 2 more years until in 2020, I was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. And there's nothing like creating a hot fire like breast cancer under your ass to create that urgency that I needed. I needed that fire lit under me because to leave it out there for someday, which I recognize I was doing from pretty much all of my life, I was waiting for someday, waiting for it to be perfect, waiting for my ducks to be all lined up so very perfectly, waiting to have the certainty and the confidence and the security to know I will succeed at this next moment, at this next venture. But you see, cancer woke me up to, if I was gonna do that thing, I need to do it now because no one is guaranteed tomorrow. I'm not even guaranteed to be alive when this podcast episode drops, right? And so I know that I don't wanna have the list of regrets that my mother had. These are not her words, This is my belief that my mother took her last breath with regret. And I don't want my last breath to be with regret. I want to know that I came here and did everything that I was supposed to do, helping and impacting as many lives as possible to step boldly into who I was, who you were created to be. And it was during COVID 2020. The end of the school year, I resigned from my teaching job. You know, I can't act like it was very easy. I have to give credit to my partner, Shelley, who made it possible for me to do that. I don't know if I could have done it on my own. And you see, everything that we want is on the other side of fear. Because for the majority of my life, I didn't demonstrate much confidence. I was still hiding so much of who I was. And in 2020, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, that happened for me. COVID happened for me because without those things colliding like that, I would not have taken the action that I took in 2020. And through that journey, my physical body was transformed, which gave me the confidence to step boldly into who I was created to be. You see, I didn't believe at my core that people would accept me for who I was. I thought that they would judge me and ridicule me for being open about my sexuality and my true beliefs about different things. You see, the biggest difference maker was deciding, for me deciding, that people, especially people I don't even know, but even some people that I do know on social media, will not determine, will no longer determine how I feel about myself. And you see, all those years what held me back was negative and limited thinking. I wasn't good enough. They were gonna judge me. Who am I to be open and, you know, about who I am and who I love? That fear held me back and it was actually just made up thoughts of what I thought others were thinking of me, which ultimately led to a lack of confidence. So through that experience, All of that happening for me with a newfound sense of confidence. After that, I hired my first life coach and I started Reinvent You. You see, for 24 years, I helped students transform into believable actors on stage, so much so that it became difficult for them to separate their roles on stage from their real life. They would take their characters home. You see, there was a light bulb moment that went off for me. Well, what if I could take the same skills of transformation along with a life coaching certification to learn how to clear the path and to help as many people as possible become the person their goals require? You see, it was in that moment that I felt so alive, and I felt more alive than I had felt in a very, very long time. And you see, it was shortly after that I realized that I had something special. I knew I needed to help more people. I needed to harness and grow their confidence so that they can step boldly into who they, you know, were created to be and what they really wanted to do, like create the relationships they really wanted, you know, set boundaries, you know, be who they wanna be without a fear of judgment. And so most importantly, because of that conversation with my mother, I don't want people in my life, people that I interact with, to have regrets about what they wish they had done. So you see, this podcast has evolved quite a bit since I started it in 2020, and I've been learning a lot along the way. So here we go again, it's a rebrand, it's a reinvention, because if we're not growing, we're dying. And I wanna always be someone who's evolving and growing. See, through my work with myself and the work with so many one-on-one clients,, and speaking on corporate stages, I'm now sharing with you on the podcast every single week that a new level of confidence is possible for you too. Because with this work, I began to realize the consistent through line of all of my clients in the one thing, if they just had enough confidence, that was the through line. Confidence was preventing them from doing what they want, showing up the way they wanted, being the person they really wanted to be. And client after client after client after client, confidence to do what they really wanted to do. And so in this evolution, I wanna share these 3 steps that my coaching, the foundation of my coaching, it's my Reinvention Framework, is built upon. And I believe it's powerful. And so the first step is, you know, it's a 3-part. The first step is you have to commit. There must be a strong burning why. So when you say, this is the thing that I want, I want to change my life, we have to commit in order to do it so that on those days when we don't feel like doing it, that strong burning why keeps us integral to our word. And then number 2, we have to assess where your thermostat is set. You know, just like thermostat in your house. We have to assess what is creating the result. My results were created by what I thought other people were, were saying about me, the fear of the unknown, me not believing. Again, it comes back down to confidence. And so we want to assess where your confidence meter is, you know, what's creating the thoughts and the habits and behaviors that's keeping you in the same patterns over and over again. And then number 3, after we have a strong commitment, we assess where the thermostat is set, and then we recalibrate it. And that's shifting your identity, baby. So the ultimate expression of who you were created to be, because in order to get something new, we have to create a new map. We have to create a new manual. We have to get rid of that old map and that old way of thinking and way of being and programming that's creating the results that you have in your life right now. And you see, we want to actually change the neurochemistry of your brain, of your thinking, and rewire it for success. But we have to, we have to assess, we have to commit, and then recalibrate. We have to build that muscle of confidence, just like going to the gym, because without confidence, We get stuck. We give up easily. With confidence, we perform with certainty. Because when you lose belief in yourself, that's where I can step in and help you begin to build the muscle so that when times get hard, when you're going up for that promotion, when you wanna go in and have a meeting with your boss or have a discussion with your partner, when you wanna make that bold move, you will have built the muscle of confidence so when you need it the most, it will be there. Because building the confidence to believe in you can be trained and improved, and it takes repetition. It takes repetition because we wanna practice, practice, practice. We each were born with confidence and something happened, and maybe a lot of somethings happened that dim that light. But you see, what I want you to really get a hold of today is people will not believe in you until you believe in you. So now I know how I made this change in who I'm being and how I'm showing up. I want to provide that help and guidance and motivation and empowerment for you. And so what you can expect on this podcast are solo episodes filled with actionable insights and occasional conversations with guests who have mastered their own reinventions. And it is my hope and my goal, my mission, to help you learn to build the, the, the muscle, to build the confidence, to believe fully in yourself. Because if you're someone looking to elevate your leadership and to live into your full potential, both in your professional and your personal life, I want you to do me a favor right now and subscribe to this podcast, Lead with Confidence Now. Let's start turning those doubts into decisive, confident action that actually sticks. So I'm going to ask you right now to do what I want you to do. I need a favor of you is to go ahead and subscribe. And if you like this episode, this is the favor. Please give it a 5-star rating and review it because I want this to be a source for you. You know how that works. It's going to help more people find the show. The more reviews I have, then Apple starts suggesting it. Apple starts showing it to more people and it helps the show grow. And I want to help more women, more men who are looking to step more boldly into who they were created to be. And take action on that, that thing they've been putting off on the back burner. So welcome to Lead with Confidence Now, and I'm so, so excited for this evolution and where this work is continuing to take me and you. All right, we'll talk next week.