How Women Speakers Build Real Confidence

Links: www.laurenchapnick.com (find out more about Lauren and the She's Got The Mic Speakers Collective).

What if fear is not a sign to stop but proof that what you are doing actually matters?

In this episode of She’s Got the Mic, host Lauren Chapnick speaks directly to women speakers and entrepreneurs who feel fear when putting themselves out there on stage online or in business and choose to do it anyway.

Inspired by a powerful Georgia O’Keeffe quote, this episode explores what it really takes to build confidence as a speaker trust your intuition as an entrepreneur and keep going even when criticism self doubt and loneliness show up.

This episode is a reminder that fear does not mean you are unqualified or unprepared it often means you are on the edge of growth visibility and impact.

If you are a woman entrepreneur coach or aspiring speaker who wants to grow your business through speaking this episode will help you reframe fear as fuel and remind you that you are not alone.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

-Why fear is often a sign that your message matters.

-How women speakers can reframe stage fright as fuel.

-The difference between fear and intuition — and how to use both.

-Why confidence doesn’t come before action (it comes after).

-How to get comfortable being uncomfortable as an entrepreneur.

-Why community is essential for women speakers and business owners.

-How to stop letting criticism (and praise) control your momentum.

-What it really means to believe in your message when no one else sees it yet.

Key Takeaways:

Be Afraid — and Do the Thing Anyway.

Fear doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong. It often means you’re doing something brave, meaningful, and aligned. Whether it’s stepping onto a stage, launching a business idea, or sharing your message publicly — fear is part of the work.

Confidence Is Built Through Action.

You don’t wait to feel ready. You take the mic anyway. Every talk, every pitch, every uncomfortable moment builds real confidence — the kind that lasts.

Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable.

Growth as a speaker and entrepreneur requires discomfort. Learning to expect it — instead of avoiding it — changes everything.

Community Changes Everything.

Women speakers grow faster, stronger, and more confidently when they are surrounded by other women on the same path. You don’t have to do this alone.

Who This Episode Is For:

-Women entrepreneurs who want to grow their business through speaking.

-Aspiring keynote speakers and workshop leaders.

-Coaches, creatives, and thought leaders building visibility.

-Women who feel called to use their voice but struggle with fear or self-doubt.

-Anyone who knows they’re meant for more — and is ready to go after it.

About the Host

Lauren Chapnick is the host of She’s Got the Mic and the founder of the She’s Got the Mic Speakers Collective/; a live in person community for women speakers and entrepreneurs who want real stage time real connection and real momentum.

Lauren helps women trust their intuition sharpen their speaking skills and use their voice to grow their business without waiting to feel ready.

Stay Connected:

Follow She’s Got the Mic for weekly conversations with women speakers and entrepreneurs.

Rate and review the show to support women owned podcasts.
 Share this episode with a woman who is ready to take the mic.

For weekly

To be played at opening of all SGTM episodes, this is a promo for the Speakers Collective.

Transcript

Opening And Core Quote

Lauren Chapnick 0:42

Am I feeling that fear? What I say in those moments is this must matter. If I'm afraid, if I'm feeling my heart racing, that must mean that it is important. So I use that and I take a breath and I do the thing anyway. Welcome to She's Got the Mic, the show for women speakers and entrepreneurs using their voice to grow their business. I'm your host, Lauren Chapnick. Let's go. Hi, everybody, and welcome to She's Got the Mic. I'm Lauren Chapnick. I'm your host. And if this is your first time listening, I welcome you. And I invite you to give the show a follow and a rating and a review if you like what you hear, or share it with somebody who could use a little connection, a little motivation to keep going in this journey of entrepreneurialism and speaking. I want to share something with you that I heard more than a week ago now, and it really resonated and it has stuck with me. Here it is. I have already settled it for myself. So criticism and flattery go down the same drain, and I am quite free. How beautiful is that? Georgia O'Keefe, the artist, said that. Let me say it one more time. I have already settled it for myself. So criticism and flattery go down the same drain, and I am quite free. Mike Drop, that just captures what being an entrepreneur is all about. It is about being so confident, believing in what you do, your message, what you have to offer, what value you bring to your community, believing in it so hard that truly, no matter what people say, it just floats right down the same drain. Whether somebody tries to tear you down, or somebody says, you know, what you're doing is incredible, you're amazing. It all goes down the same drain because you believe in it so much, you have already seen it for yourself. How hard is it to truly let all of the feedback not affect you? I feel like it's almost impossible, right? But I think that message is really there to encourage us to say, okay, other people, my future community, my future clients, they don't know me yet. They don't see the vision, they don't see what I see, but that's okay. I see it. I believe in it so strongly that I am willing to sacrifice A, B, C, whatever you are willing to give up to make your business get to the point where you want it to, because I believe so hard in what I am doing here. I believe in the vision. I believe that the ideas, the knowledge, the research that I have is so valuable that it is going to change the lives of my future community, of my current community, of the people who already follow me, who already whatever your business is. That is also incredibly difficult. It's incredibly difficult and it can be isolating, it can be lonely, very lonely to live in a place of it. You almost feel a little bit nuts, but in the best way. Because you have to know. And if no one else tells you this today, hear it from me. You are not alone. Because I would rather hang out with the nuts who have a vision, who believe in something so hard any day, than the person who just wants to go to work and come home and make a drink and sit on the couch and watch Netflix and let the days go by. That is not how I want to spend my life. And I know if you're listening to this, that is not how you want to spend yours either. But how do we get to that place? How do we get to that Georgia O'Keefe standard of it doesn't matter who tears me down, it doesn't matter who builds me up. I believe in it. And I'm going to keep going one foot in front of the other because there are a lot of obstacles that get in the way. And the first one I want to talk about is fear. I talk about fear in my keynote. And I talk about the difference between fear and intuition. And I also talk about how fear can serve you. And how when you are feeling that fear to use it, to channel it, and to do the thing anyway. Can you think of a time where you were afraid, but you did it anyway? That is where the growth happens. Those are the moments that really push you as a human and as a speaker and as an entrepreneur. I can speak for myself. And I know I've spoken to a lot of you who feel the same way. We all get nervous. We're all afraid before we get on that stage to give our talk, whether it's for five people or 500 people, we all get a little nervous. But that's when we say, Good. Am I feeling that fear? What I say in those moments is this must matter. If I'm afraid, if I'm feeling my heart racing, that must mean that it is important. So I use that and I take a breath and I do the thing anyway. There's a story that I tell in one of my keynotes where I'm in sixth grade. And anyone listening who knew me in sixth grade, you know that I had chubby cheeks. I had bushy curly hair with bangs because for whatever reason I thought bangs would look good with bushy curly hair. It did not. Anyway, there was an audition for the solo in Beauty and the Beast for my sixth grade middle school chorus. And I'll tell you, Disney princess is not the first thing that you would think of if you saw a picture of me at that point in my life. I was the epitome of spelling bee nerd meets awkward, right? I wore flannels and turtlenecks tucked into jeans, sort of like a chubby Steve Urkel. And when they announced the auditions for this Beauty and the Beast solo, I was the last person anybody thought would audition. And when it came time, when it came time for the big audition day, I was so scared. But something whispered inside me, you're gonna get this. And I had to just channel that fear and do the thing anyway. And I got the solo. And it was the first point in my life that I can really remember being afraid, doing it anyway, and seeing the payoff. And it is such a valuable lesson to teach our kids and to learn ourselves as entrepreneurs. Because I got to tell you, to be an entrepreneur, to think of an idea, to be a thought leader, to think of a topic for a new talk, a new signature talk, a keynote, a workshop, whatever you're working on, and to say, this is so good, I want to put it in front of people. I have to believe in this so much, and I have to just put myself out there. It's scary and it's a little nuts. If you really think about what we all do, we have no guarantee of a paycheck. We have no idea what's coming next. We're basically an unemployed actor looking for work, and we have to believe in ourselves day after day after day, so strongly and have such a strong vision that we keep going. And there are things that make us keep going. When we book something, when we book a talk, when we get positive feedback, it makes us say, okay, what I'm doing is working, it is worth it. But being an entrepreneur is scary, it's lonely. And I think to get to that point of Georgia O'Keefe, if it really exists, if you can really not be bothered by the critics and not really feel much with the positive feedback, I think there are a few secrets. I think the first one is what I just talked about being afraid, but doing it anyway. I think you also have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Make that part of your routine. It's something that we force ourselves to do anyway. I remember in the early days of the pandemic when I wanted to get in shape, I turned to Gillian Michaels, who, you know, is a famous trainer, and she would scream through the TV, get comfortable, being uncomfortable. And she's so right. You have to accept that that's part of the gig. You're going to feel uncomfortable. You're going to feel like you want to puke maybe all day before you get on that stage. But once you start doing the thing anyway, how much better do you feel? It's like another check in the box. It's another form of validation. It's proof that what you're doing is working. And it gives you that fuel to keep going. I think the other, maybe most important part of achieving that Georgia O'Keefe status, if you will, is having a community, having somebody in your corner who truly understands what it's like to be you, to do what you do, to own your own business, to want to speak on stages, to grow your business, to share a message, to offer value to an audience. When you connect with another human being who wants those things, something so powerful happens because it's one thing to believe in yourself and to kind of hide in your bed and be working on your talk or working on your business, and you can journal all day long and have your vision boards, and all of those things are so powerful. But when you meet other women in the same room who are on a similar journey as you, and you spend time with them and you connect with them and you cheer for each other, that is true progress. That is when your business goes from here to through the roof. Like the potential is just blown off because you are connected with other human beings who are doing the same thing as you. Community is everything. Because as entrepreneurs, I think I know I speak for myself. I think I can speak for all of us when I say our brains just work a little differently than everybody else, right? Do you ever think, you know, my brain, I think is just wired a little different than most people? Because there are people in this world, and I think it's most people who want a steady, consistent routine. They want a, they want the stability of a job, they want to go to work, they want to come home, have their weekend free, and rinse and repeat. We are always wanting to chase after that next idea because we believe so strongly that it is going to change people's lives. Those people that want the nine to five, that want that consistency, they probably look at us and think we're a little nuts. And here's what I say: I would say we are a little nuts. And thank goodness for that. Because I want to spend my life hanging out and connecting with other nuts like me. Because I have never been built to just accept mediocrity. I'm not built to just report to a job and then come home and that's it. I will always be building something. I will always be wanting to put myself out there to want something greater. And I can't explain why. That's just how I have always been. And I know that so many of you out there will hear that and resonate with it somehow. And I'm here for it. I am building a community of women in this podcast and in my speakers collective. And I am so proud of each and every one of you for what you are building. And if nobody else tells you this today, this week, this year, what you are creating is so important to the world, and you need to keep going because I am in your corner. I am rooting for you. I am cheering for you. And you are going to provide so much magic to your future clients, your current clients, and you light up the room. I'm so proud of you. And starting next week on She's Got the Mic, I will be bringing you conversations with our fellow nuts, women, entrepreneurs, business owners, speakers who are here to share their journey, how they got to be where they are, what they're working on, their struggles, their stories, their insights. And we are all going to come together, cheer each other on, hear these stories, hear from these other women who are doing the thing, who are taking action, who are going for it. And I'm so excited to bring each and every one of them to you. So to sum it all up today, if we want to channel our inner Georgia and let the flattery and the criticism all flow into the same drain, here's what we need to do: we need to be afraid, but do the thing anyway. We need to have the courage. We need to acknowledge the fear and do it anyway. And know that that fear means that this matters. Next, we have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Third, we have to believe so hard in what we are doing, even when nobody else does. And number four, we have to find our community. Find your people who are going to back you up, who are going to cheer you on, because this is going to get hard. Being an entrepreneur, being a speaker, it's hard. And it is very easy to doubt yourself and to say, no one really cares about what I have to say, but I'm here to tell you, yes, they do. The world needs to hear your voice. What you have to say is so valuable. It is so important. And I am here cheering you on, rooting for you. And your future clients, your future community is waiting for you. So get off your butt and keep going. Until next time, guys, just know that you're a little nuts, and that is exactly how you are supposed to be. I'll see you the next time. Bye-bye. Thanks for listening to She's Got the Mic. If you enjoyed today's episode, hit follow, rate, and review, and send it to another woman who's ready to take the mic. And for a weekly bit of hell yes energy, plus behind the scenes invites and live speaking experiences, the word speaker. Six eight one six four six three. That's speak to eight three three six eight one six four six three. Now go make some noise.