Ep. 156 / Conquer Imposter Syndrome & Why You Need a “F*ck It Bucket"


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Executive confidence coach Kimberley Mauro and host of the podcast Corporate Confidence Mastery unpacks the silent epidemic affecting corporate leaders: corporate confidence erosion. Kimberley explains how years of stress, self-doubt, and toxic work cultures can chip away at even the strongest professionals, and shares how to reclaim true, unshakable confidence. Plus she explains why you shouldn't be a “hollow chocolate bunny” and why everyone needs a “F*ck it Bucket” and what that is!

You will learn:

  • Why confidence erosion happens in corporate culture

  • How Kimberley went from overwhelmed to empowered

  • The difference between surface confidence vs. deep self-belief

  • Simple, actionable steps to reclaim your confidence

  • How saying “yes” more often can transform your life

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TRANSCRIPT:

(00:01) We are here with Kimberley Mauro, MSW CLC. She's the standout coach for ambitious leaders, high performing executives, and CEOs. They turn to her when they're ready to reclaim their confidence and regain control. With a master's degree in social work and over 30 years of experience, Kimberley coined the term corporate confidence erosion to describe the quiet epidemic of stress and self-doubt that slowly tears away at leaders confidence, keeping even the most successful stuck and playing small.

(00:29) Known for her bold, compassionate coaching style, Kimberley helps clients transform into confident, laser focused powerhouses with her corporate confidence mastery framework. She's also the host of the corporate confidence mastery podcast where she shares bite-sized confidence nuggets for ambitious leaders.

(00:45) When she's not coaching, you'll find Kimberley enjoying her Japanese Italian heritage through food, dreaming of being a superstar singer, and always leveling up through lifelong learning. Kimberley, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me here. I'm so excited. So, Kimberley, talk to me about how you became an executive coach.

(01:03) What was the How did you say, "Okay, I'm I'm now going to take all of my experience and become a coach." I was I had left my formal work world job and I didn't know what I wanted to do when I grew up really and was looking at all my options trying to figure it out when I stumbled across coaching. There was a woman who coached very similarly to how I'd always worked um with my clients as a social worker and setting goals and going after them and helping clients to do that.

(01:35) So I thought, "Wow, like I think I already do this. I would love to do this. This sounds amazing." And so I dove right in and did a year-long um schooling and getting to really know the coaching world. Got certified, saw how it changed my life. I already knew how to level up and it just took it to the stratosphere for myself and my and my co-workers who became friends or my co co-mates, co schoolmates, whatever.

(02:04) Um, and it just catapulted our success and our lives. Talk to me about I know that when you were in the corporate world, there was a point where you were super low. You were like laying on the couch feeling like garbage and that was kind of like an aha moment for you. Can you take me through that? Yeah, I was I was working in a really challenging job. Loved loved my job.

(02:24) Loved my clients serving my clients and I just didn't feel supported. I didn't feel supported by the big big big people at the top who beyond way beyond my office and level and I didn't feel really supported in the work and doing that kind of work. It's was super critical as well. I had multiple personal losses that had happened in a short amount of time and I just really needed to take a step back and think about what was going on for me, how I was feeling um you know looking after my own emotional wellness and what I had

(03:02) set out to do when I started so young in my career is just to help people. So when I discovered coaching, it just blew my mind because I realized for the first time that it was possible, what I'd always dreamed about looking out the window, it was possible for me to just sit with a real person and do powerful, meaningful work that shifted really deep without any bureaucracy, any red tape, you know, anyone else making decisions for myself, my clients.

(03:36) So, and what I really like, you know, I feel like once you experience that that sort of element of feeling down or feeling not good enough or feeling not whole enough, I feel like it gives you this you're already obviously a very empathetic person. You've so many years of experience in social work, but having had that personal experience, like how do you feel like you bring that with you as a coach? Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

(04:02) I I just felt it on a deeper level because like I said earlier for me even the shifts were just so huge and and just huge insights every time and then applying them and and just changing things and upleveling things and I just did not want I couldn't stand the thought of anyone suffering like I did alone.

(04:24) You know as high achievers we just power through nose to the grind keep pushing. Keep pulling it out and we do. We still have success. We still meet goals. We still do the work. But what's happening underneath is we're creating this undercurrent of just such self-suffering. And it happens so slow we don't even realize it. And I just would picture these these high achievers sitting at their desks feeling stressed and doubting themselves or feeling undervalued and overwhelmed and feeling like crap.

(04:52) And that's that's still my driving motivation to helping my clients and and to making sure I put myself out there with your help. Um so that I can reach them and they can find me. Yeah. And talk me I really love the phrase that you have coined called corporate confidence mastery. And by the way, I I forgot to tell to the viewers.

(05:12) Kimberley and I have been working together for over a year and so I really know the things that she talks about and I was really excited to share it with the audience cuz there's so much value. So I work for myself now obviously but the idea of corporate confidence erosion I see it I see it for many of my peers at different stages in their experiences.

(05:30) For me myself in the corporate world we go through highs and lows of where we're at. So I really always connected with this idea that Kimberley had a of corporate confidence erosion but also the idea of the agency that we have you know and so I would love to jump in with Kimberley.

(05:48) So talk to me Kimberley about corporate confidence erosion. So on your podcast corporate confidence mastery you talk about corporate confidence erosion. What is that? corporate confidence erosion is it's it was this this pulling together of my observations in working with my corporate clients and seeing what they're experiencing over time spent in corporate.

(06:15) So, these are people who've put in their time and they are starting to notice that most of my clients are coming to they're either been referred by someone who says, "You need to go talk to Kim about your confidence and how you're feeling or they've come to their own realization that something's not right, that they're not feeling good.

(06:38) And even though on the outside they're having tons of success, like I said earlier, there's this undertoe that is tearing down their confidence at the same time. And it's really subtle. They don't even know what's happening most of the time. And it happens over a long, slow period of time. And at the point that my clients come to me, they're feeling stressed.

(06:59) They're feeling overwhelmed. They're feeling not good enough. They might even be getting messages like that because they simply aren't performing at the level they once did. When you're feeling that way, you start to have obsessive thinking. What is what are the people in the boardroom going to say when I say this? Is it good enough? Is there other things at play? My boss doesn't like me.

(07:21) All of these kinds of things. And we just start self-sabotaging. So, I like to say that there is a solution. It's not forever that you're going to feel this way. Everyone doesn't have to do a massive pivot out of their world. You can learn to love what you're doing again and love how you're feeling again.

(07:43) You and some people choose something else. They do choose to find something that lights them up in a different way. So, it's just a slow, sneaky process. and talk to me about the dangerous illusion of confidence. What is that? Yeah, the dangerous illusion of confidence. The dangerous illusion of confidence to me is the easiest way to explain it is what people call impostor syndrome.

(08:14) And for me, I think it goes much deeper than impostor syndrome. We think of I'm a fraud or they're going to find out I don't know what I'm talking about or I just need to feel more confident everything's going to be fine. To me, I don't think it's that simple. I think it goes to a much deeper comp complex level, which I think is dangerous because it goes back to the confidence erosion that I was speaking of earlier.

(08:41) When we feel those things that we're a fraud, we're imposter, someone's going to find out. It's not only this surface level thing and we can just an easy fix. It's really about getting underneath, getting to that undertow and finding out what's going on. And I think it tears away at your confidence, the corporate conference erosion.

(09:04) I've coined all these phrases through my work with my clients because I think they capture what's actually happening much deeper than these phrases that have been thrown around forever. So to me, it's like putting a refresh on the impostor syndrome. I I tell my clients, "Do you want to be a hollow chocolate bunny or do you want to be a solid chocolate bunny?" A hollow chocolate bunny.

(09:25) We can crumble that sucker with not a lot of external force, right? It just smash it into a million pieces. They both look equally beautiful, successful, yummy on the outside, but on the inside, totally different story. I saw the chocolate bunny, it's that building that confidence from the inside out, self-confidence, right? There's confidence.

(09:44) Like I can pour this glass of water cuz I've done it a million times before. It's evidence-based. I've got history to it. But self-confidence is something different. Self-confidence is with us whether whether it's something new, whether we don't we haven't tried something before, we're doing something that's taken us outside of our comfort zone.

(10:01) And so when we try and cut a solid chocolate bunny, you can't even cut that with a knife. It's really hard. And even if we can break it or cut through it, those pieces are rock solid. So, it's a much easier shift to reposition ourselves, take a breath, and know that nothing has changed under the surface. We are still that person.

(10:22) We're just in putting ourselves in a uh discomfort, which is where our growth lies, right? So, it's really important that we build that from the inside out. We don't want to be a hollow chocolate bunny that crumbles from very there's always going to be external forces around us that are going to try and shift our confidence and tear us down and make us second guess ourselves.

(10:43) So to me it's it's a much deeper level than imposter syndrome. I like the metaphor of the hollow chocolate bunny versus the the the full full the complete chocolate bunny. What's it called? 100% solid solid. I can't think of the opposite. I'm like I'm like chat GPT, what's the opposite of hollow? Um, but I really like the metaphor of the solid chocolate bunny versus the hollow chocolate bunny in terms of our confidence.

(11:11) What is your advice to reclaim your confidence and not just for that meeting or for one thing, but really when we're feeling empty and we're questioning ourselves a lot and we're in this stage of corporate confidence erosion, what are your tips for reclaiming your confidence? Yeah. So, I think the very first one is so critical is we have to claim it like it's yours. It's out there for you.

(11:36) Go get it and own it and just decide. That's all we have to do. It is um not something we're born with. So, you have to make a decision to claim it. It's like motivation. Motivation is something that people are waiting around to just arrive on a silver platter for you and everything's going to be okay and I'm going to go after everything. It's the same thing.

(12:00) It's a decision. You create it. Nobody else creates it for you. Are there tricks like I, you know, obviously I work with people to do on camera work. On camera work and that obviously includes a lot of confidence. So I have tips that I recommend about identifying your confidence. Like I say to people, write down the things you've done in the past that really make you feel like, oh, I did that thing.

(12:22) I'm actually really capable and and smart and and people like me or whatever, right? Or wear something that feels awesome. Are there things that are there steps that you recommend for someone to be able to step one of reclaiming your confidence is claim your confidence? Are there small things that help people claim it or reclaim their confidence? Yeah, I think so.

(12:43) Claiming it's the first thing, right? I can announce it to the world. I still have to go and do the work. Right? So I think there's three things. I think claiming it's the very first step, owning it and just deciding. The second thing is you have to go out and you have to build it. How do we do that? Similar to what you're saying, we have to start taking action.

(13:00) And it's not these big grandiose actions attached to these big huge goals. Yes, it's awesome to have those and we want to go after those. The first part of that though is consistent just little micro steps every single day builds momentum. And when we do that, we build the momentum. And every time we take that, we deposit one more little piece in our confidence bank.

(13:24) And it becomes this huge snowball effect that just rolls and rolls and rolls big like little little actions makes a big big big snowball, right? And it just takes us right to that goal with progressive speed. So that's the next thing and then the third thing I would say is you have to protect it and not in a desperate needy like fearful way but in this really abundant confident way because as I said earlier the world is just going to keep happening and things are going to forces are going to keep coming at you and we want to make sure

(14:00) that that's intact. It's solid. And the way to do that is to continue to practice it every day and to be aware when it's when you're feeling challenged. Take a pause and remind yourself, as you said earlier, very similar, right? Remind yourself, I'm still that confident person. I'm that solid chocolate bunny.

(14:21) Nothing's changed. I'm good. And then you can just reframe and keep going. That's what I would say. And what about for people who weren't originally confident? Like, you know, we're talking about reclaiming your confidence. What about people who are truly good at what they do, but they really don't have that inner confidence? How would you say someone starting to actually build that confidence? What would you recommend? I say step into discomfort.

(14:47) I make my clients step into discomfort. I'm very compassionate. I'm also very bold. I hold my clients to the fire. I keep them accountable. I make them go to a restaurant by themselves if they've never done that on a business trip. And they're not allowed to take a phone or take a book and just be with themselves confidently in the restaurant.

(15:09) And some people freak out over this kind of stuff. Go to a movie by yourself. Don't sit by yourself in the back 40. Put yourself between two groups of people. Laugh your butt off with them. Like just enjoy yourself. Say yes. For me, I had a year of saying yes. Which turned into just that's what I do now.

(15:28) Someone asked me something hypnosis. Get on the call with me. We're going to talk about going to New York. I'm like, I'm not ready to do that. Get on the call with me. Yes. I knew as soon as I said yes, I was going to New York. I didn't need any convincing after that. So, I just make it my policy. Say yes to every opportunity that's aligned with my values and that my goals.

(15:50) And then think about how you're going to make that happen after. Like just always stretch yourself. That's the best way. Once you know what that feels like, I say feel it in your body. Where do you feel that emotion? I take you through in a little exercise. And once you know how that feels in your body, then you've bottled it and you can just sell it to yourself over and over and over again.

(16:08) Just remember what that feels like. Then you've created the history of knowing what confidence feels like. That's it. It's not This work isn't hard. It's not complicated. We make it to be big deal. They're always they're really practical, easy to apply things. We just have to do them and practice them over and over again.

(16:29) I like the idea of just start putting yourself in uncomfortable situations because and this is really I probably now she's getting older I probably shouldn't tell stories about my daughter but anyway she she took this piece of paper that I printed for her last year and it says something like um you know if you're if it's hard it means your brain is growing and maybe there's another one like you don't you don't have to be perfect you just have to keep working or keep trying and like asterisk There is no perfect.

(16:58) And so I think to your point is getting uncomfortable can be really small things. I like your example of for some people eating at the bar at a restaurant is really deeply uncomfortable and it doesn't matter what the thing is, but you're actually creating new pathways in your brain every time you do something hard and you're telling yourself a new narrative.

(17:17) So, I love your examples of like this is a thing that you can do today and then in a week you're going to say, "Hey, I did that thing and then next month you're going to say yes to something even scarier." And I like your example of so Kimberley was referring to a shoot day in New York. We'd been working together for about actually we've worked together for like a year and a half, two years.

(17:35) And she has, you know, this these amazing ideas and she helps people in such an amazing way. And I was like, " Kimberley, you need to get yourself on camera. We need to launch your podcast. We need to make this thing happen." And Kimberley knew it, but she did need the push. And then I was like, I'm not ready. I'm not ready.

(17:53) That was my motto. Exactly. And so Kimberley kept saying, you know, I'm not ready. I'm not ready. And because Kimberley 's a good coach, she even knew she was being like there was some resistance, but not strong resistance. And so I love that I said to you, you should come to New York and film with us.

(18:08) We offer it only once a year. And it's what I knew as a as a video expert, like this is what you need, you know? And I love that you said yes, let's do this thing because there's a reason why why we push against things like to your point about the hollow bunny versus a solid bunny. If we are a solid bunny as a person, but someone has hollowed it out, a work experience has hollowed it out or just we're scared.

(18:32) We're just scared that we need to start putting ourselves in new situations to feel that the solidness again. And so I really love that you ended up coming to New York and launching the podcast because people do deserve to hear your lessons and unless you're speaking, no one can hear you. How's anyone going to hear you if you're not talking? So I just I love that you're you're practicing what you preach for your clients.

(18:53) Um and the shoot day was really fun. Super fun. Can I plug it for a minute? Is that okay? Oh, yeah. I was going to say actually I would love to hear actually Kimberley about, you know, when you came to me, talk to me about what you were struggling with and what you learned through our work together. Yeah.

(19:08) So, I I think I found you on LinkedIn on someone else's podcast, I believe, Heather Ronan's podcast, I think. And uh was instantly intrigued and I reached out to you to connect and said, "Ah, you're out of my league. We'll never work together. Maybe one day." And you said, "You don't know that. Come on a call again." I'm like, "Okay." So, yes. Went on the call.

(19:31) Well, we ended up working together because I really wanted to learn how to put myself out there. I'd always been in a career where we kept our personal lives very very private and it was important to the work we did and respectful to our clients. So to after decades of doing that to completely develop a business on the opposite stuff was was a hurdle that I needed to overcome.

(19:57) And so I knew that you were the person to help me with that as soon as we got on the call. Uh, I probably knew that before we got on the call. That's why we had the call. Um, so learning to prepare for that meant I also had to get my mind really dialed in to my content and I always wanted to build my own IP.

(20:18) I had done some of that, but these opportunities allowed me just to dive right in. It really expanded my my mind and helped me to get really clear on my messaging and my work cuz I think I kind of had fought I resisted saying I that's what I do. I'm a confidence coach. That is that is the nuts and bolts of everything I do.

(20:38) And so you helped guide me through that whole process getting comfortable on camera in my own surroundings preparing for New York just took it to a whole other level. There was a big production crew and the whole thing and I needed to be ready and it was just a phenomenal experience.

(20:57) I I tell everyone they have to do it. Wherever I go, people are where where did you do all this work and this this this was amazing. Like there that wasn't where you live, was it? No, I went I went to my coach. So yeah, I highly recommend the whole experience of working with you oneonone. And I know people do the boot camp and that NYC VIP day. I do it 100 times over.

(21:19) It was phenomenal. Just took my whole It took everything I do to another level. And it really amplified my own messaging and my my own confidence in talking about my messaging, right? Like whole other level. And I I love what you're saying about because sometimes I think people misunderstand content that actually video and content it's it take the reason why it's actually hard to do is not necessarily the production aspect but there it takes a long time to get the clarity of message. The truth is we all especially

(21:51) coaches you work in solutions-oriented work. Someone comes to you with a problem and you solve it. But the truth is to put your message out there you have to think through a framework and say how do I work? What does this mean to people? If I had to introduce someone to my way of thinking, what does that look like? And it takes a while.

(22:07) And I think people think like, oh, just pop on camera. Great. I mean, if you're putting yourself on camera, I always applaud people, but to step back and say, what do I believe? What is my framework? And that's what I loved doing with you was helping you clarify your IP because you do have a very unique perspective.

(22:23) But it is important to sit down and say, what does that mean? What does it look like? And it's not a week-long process. It's not a month-long process. It takes months and months and months, but it's worth it because now when you really think about it, now you have you have all the the video content from our VIP shoot day in New York.

(22:40) You have a podcast. In the future, you will have a book because once you really understand who you are and what you offer people in a proactive sort of formula, not not a predictive formula, but a formula and a framework that can be explained to people. But when we're in the in the when we're in the process of solving people's problems because it's reactive to that individual, it becomes hard to talk about except for anecdotes and it makes good content in terms of those individual anecdotes.

(23:10) But when we step back and say what is my process? How do I take someone? And so that's what I really liked with you is it was fun for me, it's fun for me, but it is important about getting that clarity. Kim says it was fun for her, but it was probably excruciating because I was your I was your extra special client. And yeah, Kim would say, "You're there.

(23:31) " I'm like, "I'm not there. You help me to ex everything you just said. It's so much more than what you think it is. You think, well, I don't know. I don't I can talk on video or I could learn I could YouTube how to have a podcast." It's it's having that coach and that accountability to help bring that out in you and help you to get to I the way that you describe it, I guess, is the best way of saying it.

(23:53) It's like you kind of just pop the cork on on everything that was in here that I didn't know how to get out there, but that I do every day. Um, so I yeah, I couldn't recommend it more. It just it's changed everything for me and my business. It's really I am I wanted to establish myself as authority and a thought leader in my space and working with you has completely helped me to do that and I'm called upon for that work now that people know I am the confidence person and so I can't thank you enough for this experience and I don't want to

(24:27) let you go. I love hearing that. Tell me a little bit more about those wins and those invitations you're getting now. Yeah. So, you know, I belong to a business women's network where I live and I've been asked to do confidence presentations in the past which was interesting to me because that was right I think when we started working together and I thought oh okay that's interesting nothing nothing else but specifically confidence and I had told you I was fighting being calling myself a confidence coach because I think there's

(25:00) so many or executive coach that's the other thing there's not too It's just that you're in that world of whatever your world is, real estate, coaching, whatever. You think there's a million because that's the world you're in. But there's so many millions of people who have no idea what that is or you know who you are and what why you're different.

(25:20) So, um I've had those kind of opportunities come. I've been asked to speak. I'm doing a entire confidence month next week going to multiple uh female entrepreneurial masterminds to speak on confidence and to do some coaching and teaching. So, it's really it's really helping me in every way to do exactly what I wanted to do cuz how do you set out to be a thought leader and you want you think you are and and to be different and unique and to uh establish yourself and authority in your space and once that's dialed in, it's just it's so it's

(25:55) easy. You know what to write about. You know what to talk about all of a sudden. It makes me so happy. I feel like when I see my my clients thrive, I'm like, "This is why I'm doing it." And actually, someone said to me this year, "You would love this." She goes, "Kim, you know, you're doing what you're meant to be doing.

(26:14) " And I said, "Honestly, I do." And I was like, it really like I was like, "How did you know that?" Like, yes. But I do feel it when I get to see my clients get to put their voice out there, that's literally why I'm doing this. Like that is the exact reason is to say Kimberley Mauro has a unique perspective. She really wants to help people and she can help people. Let more people hear her.

(26:37) And I think that to me is so incredibly valuable. Like I have all this experience from Netflix and Inside Edition and People magazine, but I'm excited to be sharing it with with people who deserve to have their voices amplified who don't have access to the 15 years of journalism and, you know, communications degrees.

(26:55) But I think it's super important and for me that's it's just so fun. like I'm I'm so excited for you and you deserve that kind of feedback. You deserve to hear those things cuz that's the truth, right? And also I want to say that when you hear all your accolate like all of your accomplishments and where you've worked and everything like that, that's why I thought we'd never work together.

(27:13) I'm functioning at another level. And so the other thing I'd like to say is that you're just so down to earth. You're so real. You're so relatable. You're so easy to talk to. You're just a regular person. We have to remember. And that's something that I learn when I get to uplevel and work with coaches like yourself.

(27:30) Um, is that and from coaching too is that we don't have to be an expert in what everyone else is doing when we set out to have a business. We just have to be an expert in what our offering is and what our service is. You don't have to know everything about real estate or coaching to do what you do, right? You you need to know what you you're the expert in.

(27:48) And so not to be intimidated when you hear that someone's done all the things that you've done because everyone started somewhere and everyone's a real person underneath all that stuff. I think it's important to remember. I couldn't do what you do. I always say this. I'm like, I can do what I do, but I can't do what you do, you know? Yeah.

(28:07) Um, and Kimberley, thank you so much. And now I want to ask you two more questions before we go. There's one thing I absolutely love. I'll probably have to bleep it. You mentioned earlier the idea of obsessive thinking. I will acknowledge I have been a product of obsessive thinking where something will happen during the week and I'm thinking about it all weekend long and it's bouncing around my brain.

(28:29) I would like for you to introduce our audience to the  bucket. Ah loves the bucket. Can we? Yeah. I wish I'd known we were doing that because I would show you a little  bucket. I don't have it in front of me. Um, the bucket is a tool. I love I love being a little bit different, a little bit edgy. I swear like a trucker. Lim knows this about me.

(28:52) Um, and so I was coaching a client and he was caught up in obsessive thinking and he knows I created this because of him. So, it's a little inside joke. um and always obsessing about that earlier conversation, something someone said to me, something someone uh did and what did that mean? Or even going into interviews and obsessing about, oh, oh, they're writing that down.

(29:18) Oh, they're not talking. Oh, what's that? Look for. So, this person was never present in their life, like never. They're always worrying about what happened before, what's going to happen next, and never mindful and grounded and calm. So one day I just put it out to him. I'm like, "For Pete's sakes, just put it in your  bucket. Throw it in the closet.

(29:39) Close the damn door. Just forget about it. And don't worry for all these people who are very hypervigilant about stuff. Don't worry, it's not gone. It's in a little container. It's in your little bucket. And if it's important at some point, which it probably won't be, you can pull it out and we can coach on it then.

(29:58) " So, I think what happens for a lot of people is you sit down to focus on something, whether it's presenting yourself in an interview, whether it's um sitting down at your computer and you've scheduled a time for yourself to talk about something or to work on something that you want to create, but all this other stuff comes flooding in.

(30:15) And sometimes it's not external stuff like other people have said to you or done. Sometimes it's I'm looking at my emails and oh, that's really fun. I'm going to I'm going to do that instead. And then we don't show up for ourselves. And the reason I think it's so important to have a bucket, as much as we joke about it, is it's a place where you can put stuff that's staring away at your confidence.

(30:37) Because when you don't show up for yourself and focus on what you said you were going to do or how you were going to present yourself, every time you do that, you're stripping away and tearing it down. So, we just want to have a place where you don't have to worry about anything. You can put it there. It's safe. and now you know you can focus on what you said.

(30:57) And then when you do that, when you show up, you're depositing in your confidence bank. So, it's a really fun little tool to help us to calm our brains and be present so that we can build our own confidence on a regular basis and not continually get distracted. That's the  bucket. And I gift my clients, my VIP clients have these little found this woman who makes these beautiful little gold buckets.

(31:24) And so they all have their own little buckets they can take with me. But you can use a bucket. You can stick a bucket in your closet, whatever works for you. Garbage can, doesn't matter. I love that. Um, and I want to get before we wrap up quickly, your exit in five words. Um, yeah. So left, um, discovered my passion. That's four.

(31:53) thriving. Love it. And Kimberley, how can people work with you? What are the ways that people can work with you? Yeah. So, I I have a a luxury boutique private coaching practice. So, they can um email me or they can DM me. I'm on LinkedIn. I'm on Instagram and reach out and we can have a conversation if you're interested in working one-on-one so that we can build your confidence, you can crush your goals and feel calm and amazing.

(32:23) That's that's my that's one way. Um that's my preferred way where you get the best results. I've also, as we said earlier, I've I've launched my own podcast, my confidence uh podcast called Corporate Confidence Mastery, where I give little golden nuggets every every two weeks. So, that's free and available. You can get a little taste of what it would be like to um be exposed to my world and the way that I coach and the way that I teach.

(32:48) Um, and follow me on LinkedIn and Instagram where I'm talking about all of those kinds of things. So, that's my world. Kimberley, thank you so much for joining me. This was as great a conversation as I was expecting and I know that the listeners are going to learn so much from you. And you can everybody um those links will be in the show notes and you can connect with her on LinkedIn um at Kimberley K I M B E R L E Y M A U R O Kimberley Mauro on LinkedIn and on Instagram you're the Vault Confidential, right? Correct. Awesome.

(33:18) I'll link those out. Thank you so much, Kim. Thank you so much. It was great.


Timestamps & Highlights:

  • (00:01) Intro to Kimberley Mauro and her 30+ years of coaching & social work experience

  • (07:13) What is Corporate Confidence Erosion?

  • (09:20) The truth behind impostor syndrome and the “dangerous illusion of confidence”

  • (10:28) Solid vs. Hollow Chocolate Bunny: A powerful confidence metaphor

  • (13:13) How to reclaim confidence with small, consistent actions

  • (15:16) Real-life challenges Kimberley gives clients to build resilience

  • (19:42) Kimberley’s journey of overcoming fear and launching her podcast

  • (23:38) The clarity it takes to define your message and stand out

  • (27:23) Being seen, heard, and booked as a thought leader

  • (29:25) Managing obsessive thinking and finding presence

Resources Mentioned:

  • Kimberley Mauro podcast: Corporate Confidence Mastery

  • Confidence coaching opportunities and speaking engagements

Follow Kim Ritberg:
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📣 Connect with Kimberley Mauro:
🎙️ Corporate Confidence Mastery Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/corporate-confidence-mastery-with-kimberley-mauro/id1790794957
📸 Follow Kimberley Mauro on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thevaultconfidential/
📸 Follow Kimberley Mauro on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberleymauro/ 


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