#6 Stop Waiting to Feel Ready - Stephanie Barbour on Building Confidence Through Action
Full WattageShow Notes
Most people think confidence comes first. That once they feel certain, qualified, or ready enough, they’ll finally say what they want and move toward it. Stephanie Barbour has spent more than 15,000 hours coaching leaders, and she has seen the opposite. Confidence is built after we begin. We name the thing. We claim it. We take one awkward step. Then another. Eventually, action becomes evidence. In this conversation, Stephanie and Courtney explore why it can be so difficult to admit what we want, the subtle ways we interrupt our own momentum, and what changes when we stop waiting for confidence to arrive before we move. Because ready is not a feeling that finds us. It is something we build.
Work with Stephanie: https://www.barbourleadership.com
More from Full Wattage
Quick Charge: The Rules You’ve Outgrown We collect rules about who we are, what we’re capable of, and how much space we’re allowed to take up. Most of them we never chose. We just kept carrying them. But what happens when you’ve outgrown them? When you’re still saying “I’m not the kind of person who,” still dimming yourself down, still making decisions as someone you used to be? This first Quick Charge is about noticing what you packed for a trip you’ve already taken, and having the courage to put it down. Your Quick Charge: What’s in your bag that you’re ready to unpack? I’m right there with you, unpacking mine. Follow on Insta @fullwattage.co
How close can you get to power without losing yourself? James Orsini has spent more than 40 years in rooms most people spend their careers trying to enter. Goldman Sachs. Saatchi & Saatchi. VaynerX, where he helped Gary Vaynerchuk turn an ambitious vision into a global powerhouse. Not bad for the son of a plumber from Newark, New Jersey. But James's story isn't really about climbing to the top. It's about knowing who you are, recognizing your value, and building extraordinary success without needing to be the biggest personality in the room. In this episode of Full Wattage, James and Courtney explore the power of the second seat, why being told he was "too nice" to become a CEO didn't change him, and the difference between adapting to your environment and losing yourself to fit in. James also shares how he's approaching his next chapter as Chairman of Factotum USA and co-founder of Vyve, still building businesses, but on his own terms. An unexpected perspective on ambition, identity, and what it really means to make it. Connect with James: Instagram: @jamesorsini LinkedIn: James Orsini X / TikTok: @jimmythepencil Factotum: factotum.com Vyve: vyve.co Full Wattage: Join the Full Wattage Mailing List Follow on Insta Follow the Full Wattage Show Full Wattage. For people who refuse to live dialed down.
What do you do when life stops following the plan? This episode gets into the deeply human stuff: how we respond when certainty disappears, how perspective changes what we can see, and how much agency remains even when circumstances are out of our control.
What if the biggest mistake we make about our potential is assuming we already know its limits?
Sometimes the hardest part isn’t knowing what we want. It’s letting ourselves keep moving once we start getting it. Tom Giles has spent more than 30 years asking consequential questions and listening for the moment people go off script. In this conversation, the lens turns inward. We explore the scuba certification he put off for decades, the pull between individual desire and responsibility, how easily we shape-shift around what other people expect from us, and why momentum itself can feel strangely destabilizing. Because our lives can start changing faster than our identities can catch up. And when that happens, we tap the brakes.