Finding Your Voice Before You Feel Ready: Lessons in Confidence and Self-Efficacy

Have you ever wondered whether “confidence” is really the key to becoming a great communicator or is something more important happening beneath the surface? In this episode of Speaking with Confidence, we’re challenging what it really means to find your voice, step up before you feel ready, and why confidence might not be the word we should be chasing after all.

I’m Tim Newman, your host and recovering college professor turned communication coach. This week, I’m joined by Dr. Mickey Fitch Collins, leadership facilitator, speaker, and expert in helping organizations translate human skills like communication, empathy, and resilience into real-world impact. Mickey’s diverse background spans higher education, edtech, and corporate learning, and she brings both research and hands-on experience to the table.

In this conversation, we dive deep into Mickey’s fascinating journey from being a teenage girl breaking into the male-dominated world of professional bass fishing (yes, you read that right!) to holding senior roles in academia and ultimately walking away at forty to rebuild her career from scratch. Along the way, Mickey discovered that public speaking isn’t just about commanding a stage, it's about storytelling, and storytelling is about relationships.

We explore the formative power of speaking before you feel “ready,” how early public speaking experiences shaped Mickey’s life, and how standing out demographically meant she had to develop substance and real influence behind her voice. We unpack the vital distinction between confidence (what people see and measure externally) and self-efficacy (the inner belief in your ability to get things done) and why understanding this difference is a gamechanger.

Mickey shares specific, research-backed building blocks for growing your own self-efficacy and how simple reflection and feedback can rapidly increase your poise and presence, whether you’re on stage or in the workplace. We discuss why confidence might get you in the room, but only competence and substance keep you there, and how storytelling and vulnerability open the door to authentic influence. You’ll also hear how she wrestled with the decision to leave a prestigious academic role and how to navigate major transitions in your own professional life.

Here’s what we covered in this episode:

Mickey’s unlikely entry into professional bass fishing as a 14-year-old girl in Chicago

How fish stories shaped her love for public speaking and taught her to influence large (and skeptical!) audiences

The hidden difference between confidence and self-efficacy and why you need both

Building your skills: The four building blocks of self-efficacy and how you already use them (even if you don’t realize it)

How competence and confidence fuel each other in a “dynamic duo” for both public speaking and career growth

The transformative power of storytelling, including sharing vulnerable stories and the impact it has on relationship-building and influence