"Situation screwed. Still survivable."

James Owen learned that mantra the hard way. At 16, sailing back from Mexico in 60+ mph winds, his father walked away from the helm mid-storm — and James realized no one was coming to save him. He got the boat to harbor, moved out at 16, and years later walked into the Long Beach Fire Academy feeling like the least confident man in the room.

In episode 5 of The Confidence Question, the retired fire captain and author of The Last Patient lays it all out — in his words: recovering alcoholic, child abuse survivor, divorced dad. He takes Tyler through the microwave fire that made a fifth-grader want the job, the line-of-duty loss of his closest friend and being force-hired into his seat two weeks later, and the years of trying to outrun pain that no amount of anything could medicate — until a voice on a run along the LA River cracked him open: save the last patient.

Plus his reframe of FEAR (fix everything and rise), a round of Armor or Skin — because confidence isn't armor, it's letting yourself be seen — and why he says men don't break: they get bent, and bent things can be realigned.

If this one hits close to home, The Last Patient was written as a permission slip. It's masculine to ask for help.

CONNECT

Dr. Tyler Hales is a cosmetic dentist in Newport Beach, CA and the founder of Hales Aesthetic.

Website: https://halesaesthetic.com

Tyler Hales Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drtylerhales

GUEST

James Owen — retired Long Beach Fire Department captain, speaker, and author of The Last Patient

Website: https://captainjamesowen.com

The Last Patient (hardcover): https://captainjamesowen.com/book.html

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/captainjamesowen/

"Some people do, and some people don't."

Neil Grevemberg was a terrible student — ADHD before anyone talked about ADHD — who learned early that talking could get him far. It did: house painter at 18, then flipping houses, foreclosures, building homes, apartment buildings, and now private lending. A dad at 19 who realized he had no choice but to figure it out.

But in episode 4 of The Confidence Question, the business isn't the story. At 311 pounds, one of the most successful people Dr. Tyler Hales knows had stopped smiling. Neil shares the day that changed — a blunt conversation with his doctor, a Peloton that had sat untouched for months, and a 20-minute ride that turned into 700 straight days. Now he shows strangers his before photo, because "anybody can really improve."

One day at a time. That's the whole secret — and the hardest part.

GUEST

Neil Grevemberg

CONNECT

Dr. Tyler Hales is a cosmetic dentist in Newport Beach, CA and the founder of Hales Aesthetic.

Website: https://halesaesthetic.com

Tyler Hales Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drtylerhales

If you're waiting to feel confident before you start, you're doing it backwards.

In episode 3 of The Confidence Question, Dr. Tyler Hales breaks down three ways to build confidence that are actually backed by psychology — no affirmations in the mirror, no faking it.

It starts with a conversation that changed how Tyler sees everything: his brother — straight A's, Division 1 lacrosse, the golden child of the family — admitting he doesn't think he's a confident person. From there: why confidence only shows up after proof, not before it (Bandura's mastery experiences), how to borrow belief from the people you compare yourself to instead of feeling behind, and why your grandma's compliments don't build confidence but earned evidence does.

Confidence isn't a personality trait. It's a result.

CONNECT

Dr. Tyler Hales is a cosmetic dentist in Newport Beach, CA and the founder of Hales Aesthetic.

Website: https://halesaesthetic.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drtylerhales/

The most confident people you follow were faking it longer than you think.

Brian Harris got burned in sixth grade — a kid told him he looked like a real-life Bart Simpson. Today he's one of the most recognized names in his field, known for one thing: building confidence. In episode 2 of The Confidence Question, Dr. Tyler Hales sits down with the man he calls his biggest mentor — the reason he believed he could go all-in on the one thing he was best at.

They get into the moment Brian stopped doing everything and bet on one skill, the imposter syndrome that showed up after people started calling him an expert, the two-elevator experiment that proves confidence is internal, and the confession nobody saw coming: the cropped internet gym photos. Plus what it cost each of them to leave a partnership — Brian from his family's business, Tyler from the practice that gave him his start.

And the question Brian wishes interviewers would ask — his answer is the whole point of this show.

GUEST

Dr. Brian Harris

CONNECT

Dr. Tyler Hales is a cosmetic dentist in Newport Beach, CA and the founder of Hales Aesthetic.

Website: https://halesaesthetic.com

Tyler Hales Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drtylerhales

Brian Harris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drbrianharris

We live in a curated generation — filtered, polished, and rarely as perfect as it looks.

In the pilot of The Confidence Question, Dr. Tyler Hales introduces the show and the idea behind it. His day job puts him in a strange position of trust: people sit in his chair at the exact moment they've decided to change something about themselves — celebrities, executives, everyday people — and like a hairstylist's chair, it's where the real stories come out. What he's learned after years of those conversations is simple: everyone struggles with confidence. No matter how perfect their life looks from the outside.

This show is about the stories behind the highlight reel — the journeys, struggles, and insecurities no one talks about. In this episode, Tyler shares why he does what he does, the story behind the bow tie, and the advice from his grandpa that started everything.

Because the most powerful stories live where things aren't perfect.