Brave Moves: Confidence, Mindset & Business Growth for Women Entrepreneurs

Positive affirmations can be powerful, but during difficult seasons, repeating something you do not believe can create even more pressure. When your words do not match what you are experiencing, an affirmation may feel less like encouragement and more like another expectation you are failing to meet.

In this episode of Brave Moves, Julie shares how to use affirmations without ignoring your emotions or slipping into toxic positivity. She explains why the most effective mantras do not erase pain, disappointment, or uncertainty. Instead, they remind you of what is still possible and help you take the next small step forward.

Julie reflects on the Henry David Thoreau quote that inspired the name Go Confidently Services: “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”

This phrase has carried her through uncertain seasons, business challenges, and even the physically demanding journey of walking the Camino de Santiago. It did not make the rain stop, eliminate the pain of plantar fasciitis, or suddenly make her feel confident. It reminded her why she wanted to keep moving.

You do not have to pretend that everything is wonderful. You can acknowledge what hurts while choosing a statement that reconnects you with your strength, values, and vision for your life.

Your mantra might be:

“I am allowed to take care of myself.”

“I am a work in progress.”

“I can take one more step.”

“I am becoming the person I want to be.”

The right affirmation is not about denying reality. It is about grounding yourself in a truth that helps you continue.

In This Episode, You’ll Hear:

Why some positive affirmations can feel counterproductive during difficult times

The difference between an encouraging mantra and toxic positivity

How to choose an affirmation that feels honest and grounding

Why confidence often develops after you begin taking action

How Julie used “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams” while walking the Camino de Santiago

Why your mantra should remind you of what is possible, not pressure you to feel differently

Today’s Brave Move

Choose one simple statement that reminds you who you are becoming.

Write it somewhere you will see it. Repeat it when circumstances feel difficult, not to ignore what is happening, but to remind yourself that you can take the next step.

You may not feel confident yet. You can still go confidently.

If you loved this episode, text me and let me know what you though.

Support the show

For more about the Recalibrate Retreat, visit my website.

Get $150 off your FACTOR Meal Plan. 

Brave Moves is a daily confidence and personal growth podcast for ambitious women, women entrepreneurs, and leaders who are ready to overcome self-doubt, build resilience, and take bold action in business and life. Each short, practical episode blends mindset science, decision-making psychology, and real-life stories to help you strengthen your confidence, rewire negative thought patterns, and create meaningful forward momentum.

If you are navigating career pivots, burnout, reinvention, or leadership growth, Brave Moves gives you the tools to think differently, act bravely, and design a future aligned with your values and vision. Because confidence isn’t something you’re born with. It’s something you build, one brave move at a time.

Liked this episode? Share it with your midlife woman, entrepreneur friends!

Love this show? Let us know how we helped you increase your confidence by leaving a review.

If you’re looking for support to grow your business faster, be positioned as an authority in your industry, and impact the masses, schedule a call to explore if you’d be a good fit for one of my coaching p...

Travel is a universally rewarding experience, whether it's a week-long vacation at a resort or a backpacking trip through the Mountains. You have the opportunity to meet people, hear incredible stories, expose yourself to new cultures & languages, and ultimately grow as a person. Traveling has been the thing that has changed me and helped me recalibrate in life.

A common theme – related to travel – is the growth you experience, specifically within your perspective on the world and those who inhabit it. Trust me, it’s real. The little-known secret? You don’t have to travel that far to experience all these benefits. They can be found in your own country or even in your own state. Wherever your trip takes you, I’m going to identify a few of the many ways that these experiences change your perspective on the world.

If you loved this episode, text me and let me know what you though.

Support the show

For more about the Recalibrate Retreat, visit my website.

Get $150 off your FACTOR Meal Plan. 

Brave Moves is a daily confidence and personal growth podcast for ambitious women, women entrepreneurs, and leaders who are ready to overcome self-doubt, build resilience, and take bold action in business and life. Each short, practical episode blends mindset science, decision-making psychology, and real-life stories to help you strengthen your confidence, rewire negative thought patterns, and create meaningful forward momentum.

If you are navigating career pivots, burnout, reinvention, or leadership growth, Brave Moves gives you the tools to think differently, act bravely, and design a future aligned with your values and vision. Because confidence isn’t something you’re born with. It’s something you build, one brave move at a time.

Liked this episode? Share it with your midlife woman, entrepreneur friends!

Love this show? Let us know how we helped you increase your confidence by leaving a review.

If you’re looking for support to grow your business faster, be positioned as an authority in your industry, and impact the masses, schedule a call to explore if you’d be a good fit for one of my coaching p...

Everyone sees the finished TEDx talk — the red carpet, the polished nine minutes on stage. Almost nobody sees the first time the speaker applied and got a no. In this episode of Brave Moves, Julie DeLucca-Collins shares the real story behind becoming a TEDx speaker, including her first rejected application and what she did next.

Julie breaks down why a rejection from one specific TEDx event isn't a verdict on your message or your worth — it's information about one specific fit, with one specific curator, at one specific moment. She talks about choosing to apply to a different event instead of giving up on the stage altogether, and why the talk that eventually got a yes was built on the exact same message she believed in the first time around. This episode is an honest look at resilience, reframing rejection, and what it actually takes to keep showing up for your own visibility.

In this episode:

• The story behind Julie's first TEDx application and rejection
• Why one no is a data point, not a verdict
• What changed between the failed application and the successful one
• How to reframe rejection without losing your message
• Why visibility requires finding the right room, not proving your worth
• This week's Brave Move + free Thought Leadership Assessment

If you loved this episode, text me and let me know what you though.

Support the show

For more about the Recalibrate Retreat, visit my website.

Get $150 off your FACTOR Meal Plan. 

Brave Moves is a daily confidence and personal growth podcast for ambitious women, women entrepreneurs, and leaders who are ready to overcome self-doubt, build resilience, and take bold action in business and life. Each short, practical episode blends mindset science, decision-making psychology, and real-life stories to help you strengthen your confidence, rewire negative thought patterns, and create meaningful forward momentum.

If you are navigating career pivots, burnout, reinvention, or leadership growth, Brave Moves gives you the tools to think differently, act bravely, and design a future aligned with your values and vision. Because confidence isn’t something you’re born with. It’s something you build, one brave move at a time.

Liked this episode? Share it with your midlife woman, entrepreneur friends!

Love this show? Let us know how we helped you increase your confidence by leaving a review.

If you’re looking for support to grow your business faster, be positioned as an authority in your industry, and impact the masses, schedule a call to explore if you’d be a good fit for one of my coaching p...

Some days you wake up tired and go to bed tired, with nothing in between that explains it. In this episode of Brave Moves, Julie DeLucca-Collins explores mental exhaustion — one of three types of tiredness — and makes the case that fatigue is often the body's way of communicating something you haven't let yourself hear yet.

Julie breaks down what mental exhaustion actually looks like: decision fatigue, a mind full of open "tabs," rumination on the past, and a growing to-do list you can't seem to focus on. She explores the real physiological cost of sustained thinking and asks a deeper question beneath it all — are you actually tired, or are you tolerating a life instead of living and loving it? This episode is an honest, permission-giving look at burnout, mental fatigue, and the courage it takes to walk toward what you actually desire.

In this episode:

• The three types of tiredness, and why mental exhaustion deserves its own conversation
• What decision fatigue and mental "tabs" actually feel like
• Why sustained thinking is physically, metabolically expensive
• The difference between tolerating a life and living one
• Giving yourself permission to change, even when it's scary
• This week's Brave Move + free Thought Leadership Assessment

If you loved this episode, text me and let me know what you though.

Support the show

For more about the Recalibrate Retreat, visit my website.

Get $150 off your FACTOR Meal Plan. 

Brave Moves is a daily confidence and personal growth podcast for ambitious women, women entrepreneurs, and leaders who are ready to overcome self-doubt, build resilience, and take bold action in business and life. Each short, practical episode blends mindset science, decision-making psychology, and real-life stories to help you strengthen your confidence, rewire negative thought patterns, and create meaningful forward momentum.

If you are navigating career pivots, burnout, reinvention, or leadership growth, Brave Moves gives you the tools to think differently, act bravely, and design a future aligned with your values and vision. Because confidence isn’t something you’re born with. It’s something you build, one brave move at a time.

Liked this episode? Share it with your midlife woman, entrepreneur friends!

Love this show? Let us know how we helped you increase your confidence by leaving a review.

If you’re looking for support to grow your business faster, be positioned as an authority in your industry, and impact the masses, schedule a call to explore if you’d be a good fit for one of my coaching p...

Are you caregiving, or caretaking? In this deeply personal episode of Brave Moves, Julie DeLucca-Collins explores the critical difference between the two, and why caretaking, not caregiving, is actually a hallmark of codependency rooted in insecurity and control.

Julie breaks down how a caretaker often feels needed and quietly superior to the person they're helping, reassured that they won't be left because they're always needed, while caregiving is help freely given, an expression of love and kindness with no strings attached. She shares her own ongoing journey caring for her mother, and how she works to stay rooted in compassion rather than letting old insecurities and childhood wounds steer how she shows up. This episode also explores how caretaking can lead to burnout, resentment, and strained relationships, and why loving yourself first is the foundation for helping others from the right place.

In this episode:

The real difference between caretaking and caregiving

• Why caretaking is rooted in codependency and control
• How insecurity and old wounds can disguise themselves as devotion
• Why compassion has to come first in caregiving
• The caretaking trap: burnout, resentment, and bruised relationships
• Why loving yourself first changes how you show up for others
• This week's Brave Move + free Thought Leadership Assessment

If you loved this episode, text me and let me know what you though.

Support the show

For more about the Recalibrate Retreat, visit my website.

Get $150 off your FACTOR Meal Plan. 

Brave Moves is a daily confidence and personal growth podcast for ambitious women, women entrepreneurs, and leaders who are ready to overcome self-doubt, build resilience, and take bold action in business and life. Each short, practical episode blends mindset science, decision-making psychology, and real-life stories to help you strengthen your confidence, rewire negative thought patterns, and create meaningful forward momentum.

If you are navigating career pivots, burnout, reinvention, or leadership growth, Brave Moves gives you the tools to think differently, act bravely, and design a future aligned with your values and vision. Because confidence isn’t something you’re born with. It’s something you build, one brave move at a time.

Liked this episode? Share it with your midlife woman, entrepreneur friends!

Love this show? Let us know how we helped you increase your confidence by leaving a review.

If you’re looking for support to grow your business faster, be positioned as an authority in your industry, and impact the masses, schedule a call to explore if you’d be a good fit for one of my coaching p...

Grow a business or level up your career, and the unsolicited advice starts pouring in — from family, acquaintances, and that one person at every networking event with an opinion about your pricing. In this episode of Brave Moves, Julie DeLucca-Collins gives you a practical filter for deciding what advice actually deserves your attention, and what deserves a polite thank-you and nothing more.

Julie breaks down a four-part filter for evaluating unsolicited advice — has this person actually done the thing, is it specific to your situation or generic, is it a pattern across multiple credible sources, and does it come from someone who genuinely wants you to succeed. She also covers when it's healthy to let advice go entirely, and how to build real discernment instead of either absorbing every opinion or dismissing all feedback.

This episode is a practical guide for entrepreneurs and career-driven women who are tired of outside noise shaping decisions that should be theirs to make.

In this episode:

• Why unsolicited advice feels like criticism, even when it isn't
• A 4-part filter for deciding what advice to actually consider
• When and how to let unsolicited advice go
• The difference between discernment and defensiveness
• Building trust in your own business and career decisions
• This week's Brave Move + free Thought Leadership Assessment

If you loved this episode, text me and let me know what you though.

Support the show

For more about the Recalibrate Retreat, visit my website.

Get $150 off your FACTOR Meal Plan. 

Brave Moves is a daily confidence and personal growth podcast for ambitious women, women entrepreneurs, and leaders who are ready to overcome self-doubt, build resilience, and take bold action in business and life. Each short, practical episode blends mindset science, decision-making psychology, and real-life stories to help you strengthen your confidence, rewire negative thought patterns, and create meaningful forward momentum.

If you are navigating career pivots, burnout, reinvention, or leadership growth, Brave Moves gives you the tools to think differently, act bravely, and design a future aligned with your values and vision. Because confidence isn’t something you’re born with. It’s something you build, one brave move at a time.

Liked this episode? Share it with your midlife woman, entrepreneur friends!

Love this show? Let us know how we helped you increase your confidence by leaving a review.

If you’re looking for support to grow your business faster, be positioned as an authority in your industry, and impact the masses, schedule a call to explore if you’d be a good fit for one of my coaching p...

Do you say yes when you want to say no, just to avoid disappointing someone? In this episode of Brave Moves, Julie DeLucca-Collins tackles one of the hardest skills for high-achieving women to build: being okay with disappointing other people.

Julie walks through Don Miguel Ruiz's bestselling book The Four Agreements, applying each agreement — be impeccable with your word, don't take anything personally, don't make assumptions, and always do your best — directly to the fear of letting people down. She unpacks why someone else's disappointment is information about them, not a verdict on your worth, and why most people-pleasing is fueled by assumptions about reactions that haven't even happened yet.

This episode offers a practical, values-based reframing for anyone who has conflated people-pleasing with integrity and wants to build the confidence to disappoint others without losing themselves in the process.

In this episode:

• Why saying yes to avoid disappointment breaks your word to yourself
• The Four Agreements, applied to people-pleasing and self-worth
• Why someone else's disappointment isn't about your value
• How assumptions fuel pre-emptive people-pleasing
• Redefining "doing your best" as the only standard that matters
• This week's Brave Move + free Thought Leadership Assessment

Get the Book: The Four Agreements

If you loved this episode, text me and let me know what you though.

Support the show

For more about the Recalibrate Retreat, visit my website.

Get $150 off your FACTOR Meal Plan. 

Brave Moves is a daily confidence and personal growth podcast for ambitious women, women entrepreneurs, and leaders who are ready to overcome self-doubt, build resilience, and take bold action in business and life. Each short, practical episode blends mindset science, decision-making psychology, and real-life stories to help you strengthen your confidence, rewire negative thought patterns, and create meaningful forward momentum.

If you are navigating career pivots, burnout, reinvention, or leadership growth, Brave Moves gives you the tools to think differently, act bravely, and design a future aligned with your values and vision. Because confidence isn’t something you’re born with. It’s something you build, one brave move at a time.

Liked this episode? Share it with your midlife woman, entrepreneur friends!

Love this show? Let us know how we helped you increase your confidence by leaving a review.

If you’re looking for support to grow your business faster, be positioned as an authority in your industry, and impact the masses, schedule a call to explore if you’d be a good fit for one of my coaching p...

Do you make a decision, then immediately start Googling alternatives, rereading reviews, or asking one more friend for reassurance? In this episode of Brave Moves, Julie DeLucca-Collins tackles second-guessing head-on — and makes the case that the fix isn't more research, it's more trust.

Julie breaks down five practical, actionable strategies to stop the second-guessing cycle for good: the 10-10-10 Rule for gaining perspective on any decision, practicing fast low-stakes decisions to build your decisiveness muscle, a "no backtracking" rule for decisions already made, how to tell the difference between healthy reflection and anxious doubt, and how keeping a simple "win tracker" builds real, objective self-trust over time. This episode is a practical toolkit for anyone who wants to build decision confidence and stop losing opportunities to endless deliberation.

In this episode:

• Why more research doesn't fix second-guessing
• The 10-10-10 Rule for decision-making
• How to train your brain to decide quickly
• The "no backtracking" rule
• Reflection vs. anxious doubt — how to tell the difference
• Why a win tracker builds real self-trust
• This week's Brave Move + free Thought Leadership Assessment

My final wallpaper choice

If you loved this episode, text me and let me know what you though.

Support the show

For more about the Recalibrate Retreat, visit my website.

Get $150 off your FACTOR Meal Plan. 

Brave Moves is a daily confidence and personal growth podcast for ambitious women, women entrepreneurs, and leaders who are ready to overcome self-doubt, build resilience, and take bold action in business and life. Each short, practical episode blends mindset science, decision-making psychology, and real-life stories to help you strengthen your confidence, rewire negative thought patterns, and create meaningful forward momentum.

If you are navigating career pivots, burnout, reinvention, or leadership growth, Brave Moves gives you the tools to think differently, act bravely, and design a future aligned with your values and vision. Because confidence isn’t something you’re born with. It’s something you build, one brave move at a time.

Liked this episode? Share it with your midlife woman, entrepreneur friends!

Love this show? Let us know how we helped you increase your confidence by leaving a review.

If you’re looking for support to grow your business faster, be positioned as an authority in your industry, and impact the masses, schedule a call to explore if you’d be a good fit for one of my coaching p...

Are you setting goals to prove you're good enough — or to actually get better? In this episode of Brave Moves, Julie DeLucca-Collins breaks down a key distinction from Heidi Grant Halvorson's book Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals: the difference between "be-good" goals and "get-better" goals, and why that one choice quietly determines whether you give up the moment things get hard.

Julie unpacks Halvorson's research on goal setting and motivation, showing how proving-yourself goals collapse under pressure while growth-focused goals hold steady — and connects this to Carol Dweck's research on fixed versus growth mindset. This episode offers a practical, research-backed reframing for anyone stuck chasing external validation rather than real progress.

In this episode:

• The difference between be-good goals and get-better goals
• What happens to each mindset when obstacles show up
• Why proving-yourself goals are exhausting and unstable
• The link to Carol Dweck's fixed vs. growth mindset research
• How to set specific, achievable goals that actually motivate you
• This week's Brave Move + free Thought Leadership Assessment

Get the book:

If you loved this episode, text me and let me know what you though.

Support the show

For more about the Recalibrate Retreat, visit my website.

Get $150 off your FACTOR Meal Plan. 

Brave Moves is a daily confidence and personal growth podcast for ambitious women, women entrepreneurs, and leaders who are ready to overcome self-doubt, build resilience, and take bold action in business and life. Each short, practical episode blends mindset science, decision-making psychology, and real-life stories to help you strengthen your confidence, rewire negative thought patterns, and create meaningful forward momentum.

If you are navigating career pivots, burnout, reinvention, or leadership growth, Brave Moves gives you the tools to think differently, act bravely, and design a future aligned with your values and vision. Because confidence isn’t something you’re born with. It’s something you build, one brave move at a time.

Liked this episode? Share it with your midlife woman, entrepreneur friends!

Love this show? Let us know how we helped you increase your confidence by leaving a review.

If you’re looking for support to grow your business faster, be positioned as an authority in your industry, and impact the masses, schedule a call to explore if you’d be a good fit for one of my coaching p...

In this deeply personal episode of Brave Moves, Julie DeLucca-Collins honors the memory of her dear friend, Sister Lucilla, a nun who passed away in 2009 after a life devoted to faith, service, and joy, and reflects on everything Sister Lucilla never got to see.

Julie shares how their friendship began when she was newly 30 and new to New York, and how Sister Lucilla, nurse, teacher, gardener, seamstress, and pre-Vatican II nun — became one of the most treasured relationships of her life. Seventeen years later, Julie reflects on what Sister Lucilla would think of the life she's built since: the book, the TEDx stage, this very podcast. This episode is a celebration of a friendship that still quietly shapes everything Julie does.

In this episode:

• Julie's friendship with Sister Lucilla, who passed in 2009
• A life of faith, service, and joyful defiance of age
• What Sister Lucilla would think of Julie's life today
• This week's Brave Move: naming the people who shaped you, even years later

If you loved this episode, text me and let me know what you though.

Support the show

For more about the Recalibrate Retreat, visit my website.

Get $150 off your FACTOR Meal Plan. 

Brave Moves is a daily confidence and personal growth podcast for ambitious women, women entrepreneurs, and leaders who are ready to overcome self-doubt, build resilience, and take bold action in business and life. Each short, practical episode blends mindset science, decision-making psychology, and real-life stories to help you strengthen your confidence, rewire negative thought patterns, and create meaningful forward momentum.

If you are navigating career pivots, burnout, reinvention, or leadership growth, Brave Moves gives you the tools to think differently, act bravely, and design a future aligned with your values and vision. Because confidence isn’t something you’re born with. It’s something you build, one brave move at a time.

Liked this episode? Share it with your midlife woman, entrepreneur friends!

Love this show? Let us know how we helped you increase your confidence by leaving a review.

If you’re looking for support to grow your business faster, be positioned as an authority in your industry, and impact the masses, schedule a call to explore if you’d be a good fit for one of my coaching p...