Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan - Confidence Classic: The Key to Unlocking Your Next Level with Heather!

Episode Date: July 22, 2026

Are you thinking big enough about what's possible for your life? In this episode, I share the mindset shifts that have helped me pursue bigger opportunities, choose relationships that support my growth, and keep moving forward even when the path wasn't clear. I talk about why investing in yourself matters, how the people you surround yourself with influence your future, and why faith, preparation, and consistent action will always take you further than fear. Get ready to think bigger, trust the journey, and step into the opportunities waiting for you. In This Episode, You Will Learn: Why your biggest opportunities start with one bold step. Why the people around you shape the person you become. How investing in yourself creates long-term success. The mindset that helps you grow through uncertainty. How faith helps you keep moving when you don't have all the answers. Why I believe the best is still ahead of you. Check Out Our Sponsors: NetSuite - If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, go to NetSuite.ai/MONAHAN. Zazzle - Save 25% on your first order at zazzle.com. Wealthfront - Join over a million people already building wealth with confidence. Head to wealthfront.com/confidence to get started. Terms and conditions apply. Momentous - Head to livemomentous.com and use code CONFIDENCE for up to 35% off your entire first order. Mindstone - Check out Mindstone today and how it can help you with your business needs when it comes to AI: https://www.mindstone.com/ Resources + Links Call my digital clone at 201-897-2553!  Visit heathermonahan.com Sign up for my mailing list: heathermonahan.com/mailing-list/  Overcome Your Villains is Available NOW! Order here: https://overcomeyourvillains.com  If you haven't yet, get my first book Confidence Creator Follow Heather on Instagram & LinkedIn This experience may not be representative of other Wealthfront clients, and there is no guarantee of future performance or success. Experiences will vary. Heather Monahan and the Creating Confidence podcast (collectively "Media Partner") are not clients of Wealthfront. The Media Partner receives cash compensation from Wealthfront Brokerage for this paid endorsement placed in their podcast, creating a conflict of interest. More details available via the referral link. The Direct Deposit Plus Investing Program from Wealthfront Advisers LLC and Wealthfront Brokerage LLC provides eligible clients a 0.25% APY increase above the base APY on eligible Cash Account balances (up to an overall boosted rate of 4.30% for a limited time when including the three month 0.75% APY boost for new clients) when you direct deposit $1,000 a month, plus open, fund, and maintain an investing account. Wealthfront may change or end the program at any time and determine eligibility at its discretion. Terms apply. Full details at wealthfront.com/promo-terms. The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The base APY is 3.30% on cash deposits as of January 30, 2026, is representative, subject to change, and requires no minimum. Funds in the Cash Account are swept to program banks, where it earns the variable APY. Same-day withdrawal or instant payment transfers may be limited by destination institutions, daily transaction caps, and by participating entities such as Wells Fargo, the RTP® Network, and FedNow® Service. New Cash Account deposits are subject to a 2-4 day holding period before becoming available for transfer. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Securities investments are not bank deposits, bank-guaranteed or FDIC-insured, and may lose value. Investment advisory services are provided by Wealthfront Advisers LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser.

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I-a-I-S-Mon-A-I-S-Mon-A-I-S-Mon-A-I-S-Mon-A-Suite-A-I-S-Mon. If you're ready to sell smarter, run faster, and stress less right now, you can get up to $200 off Square Hardware at Square.com slash go-slash-confidence. That's S-Q-U-A-R-E dot com slash G-O-S-FONFENCE. your business smarter was Square. Get started today. If he had known how hard all this was going to be nine years ago, he probably wouldn't have done it because it would have been too daunting a task. But instead, he would just focus on that big vision that he had for his future and that next step

that he could take, not knowing what would lie ahead. My gosh, of seven years ago, I'd known how hard it was going to be to build my own business and get here today. I probably wouldn't have done it. Finding success is a lot of work. And it is a journey of highs and lows and not giving up believing in yourself and focusing on your faith, you're not going to have all of the answers. And we can't assume that we are or blame ourselves when we don't or get locked up with fear because we don't know how to handle the uncertainty. Instead, let go, let God and remind yourself that the best is yet to come because it truly, truly is. I'm on this journey with me. Each week when you join me, we are going to chase down our goals. Overcome adversity and set you up for a better tomorrow.

I'm ready for my close-up. Tell me, have you been enjoying these new bonus confidence classics episodes we've been dropping on you every week? We've literally hundreds of episodes for you to listen to. So these bonuses are a great way to help you find the ones you may have already missed. I hope you love this one as much as I do. Hi, and welcome back. I'm so glad you're back here with me this week. Okay, so I told you last week that I was heading to L.A.

to speak for an event to work with this team that I've recently partnered with and also had a pretty big photo shoot. There was a lot of stuff going on, a lot of events in this one week. So it was interesting. I had posted some behind the scenes on my Instagram. If you don't follow me on Instagram, it's at Heather Monaghan. And I usually give some real-time stuff. I mean, obviously my social media is always planned out in advance. But my stories are oftentimes, if I can get myself to do it, you know, if I'm like, oh, my gosh, can someone film all I'm doing this? And they do. Then I post in real time, you know, in my stories, what's happening. So last week, one of the days I was at a photo shoot with my new partner. And it's interesting because I asked one of the women that was there on the team if she could just do some, you know, BTS behind the scenes for me. And she did. She was great. So, so thoughtful. So nice.

there aren't always people there, you know, to do that. Plenty of my speaking events, sadly I'm by myself. And there's no one on the team that's available. And I don't get to share that stuff with you guys. It bums me out truly by the time I'm leaving. I'm rushing to catch a plane or whatever. And I don't remember to ask for, you know, the follow-up or you just don't have enough bandwidth and you leave and you're on to the next thing.

So I love when I can get this behind-the-scenes stuff for you. Listen, it's not all of it. It's perfect by, you know, geez, not most of it. it's not perfect. However, like anything, it's like a podcast, right? If you, whenever I have someone on my show, I say to them, listen, there's something that comes up during the show. You didn't like it. Let me know. My team can fix it in post-production, right? Same with when you're doing a photo shoot or a video shoot. We were doing both on this day last week. So I know that. The way I know that is because I've done this so many times. I started doing shoots for my brand seven years ago.

might even be seven and a half years ago because it was right before I got fired. To that end, I know that number one, I'm going to hire and work with the best. I only want to work with good people. I'm not working with people who have never done a professional shoot before because I know the quality is not going to be as good.

I know they haven't been where I want to go. I have a vision of where I want this to go. My partner had a vision. Actually, this was definitely led by my partner, but I trust her immensely. She's running at a much higher level than I am. So it's all about, you know, the people we choose to run with are either going to speed up,

us up in the process and get us to the next level or they're going to hold us back. You need to take a look at the people you're running with, the people you're partnering with and the people you're in business with, right? And in your personal life, too, it's no different. The friends you're running with the whole thing. It's all so similar. Who you run with is going to be indicative of who you're going to become. And I'm so happy that my new partner is so, gosh, she's light years ahead of me in many, many,

many ways. And so I'm so grateful to be partnered with her. Okay. So what I would say is this, you know, she had already brought in people that, were next level great knew what they were doing she'd worked with them before they were incredible right they had a vision they've done big things like they know what they're doing so invest in yourself i will always go back to this one of the biggest things you can do is make an investment in yourself it's you telling yourself that you're worthy you telling yourself you're

worth it my first photo shoot i ever did i'll never forget like i said it was right before i got fired a little before seven years ago i paid 20,000 dollars to spend a day with a really high profile photographer and videographer and that was a fortune That was aggressive that I spent that much, but I had this idea in my mind. I really wanted this to be so, so good. And it's funny, people still ask if they can use one of the images from that photo shoot because it was that good. I mean, it literally, it made it to cover the finance section on USA Today. So make that big investment, make that big bold move.

And you might be surprised how long it will serve you for, right? So I'd rather make a crazy big investment in something and then use it for seven years versus not spend a lot something and never even use the pictures right that's a waste okay so work with people who are real high caliber know what they're doing the other thing you know people are sending melli's messages how do you find confidence in yourself on a shoot a photo shoot or a video shoot here's what the reality is i've been recording podcast episodes in audio and video now for more than five years right so put the reps in weekly i'm constantly seeing myself on video i have been speaking my entire career in corporate America, which is 20-something years, ever since leaving, which is over

seven years. So almost 30 years, I've been filmed speaking everywhere I speak. People have been taking pictures everywhere I speak, right? That's just part for the course. So when you put the reps in, of course you don't get as nervous. When I first started, when people first started filming me, I was a train wreck. I was so nervous, right? Sweating bullets and you could see it. But the more you show up and put the reps in, the better you're going to get. You got to start as a beginner. you get to start one day. Why not start now? And I'll tell you one of the people in my September group, I have my September group coaching program. I record each of the live zooms and I share it back with the team after. And she watched it and she was really upset at how she looked on camera,

at how she sounded, at her voice. Here's the thing. Until you become aware, you don't know. Right. So until you start watching footage back of you, you don't know how you seem or appear. And these days, everybody's on Zoom at some point, right? You're on a Zoom meeting. You're on a Zoom deal. You're on a Zoom conference, whatever. Start to get to know how you show up on camera. It's going to help you in business and in life, 100%.

Right? You want to put your best foot forward. Meet a different guest each week. They say that every day your business is late to AI. You fall two days behind. But how do you keep up? The competition is only moving faster. Fortunately, there's NetSuite Next.

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truly works. Whether your company earns millions or even hundreds of millions, it's time for NetSuite next, where your business meets AI. If I had needed this product, it is what I would use. For the first time ever, you can try NetSuite Next for free. If your revenues are at least in these seven figures, go to netsuite. com. A.I.

Slash Monaghan, built for the every industry, ready for every boardroom, netsuite. com. If you've been following me on social media, then you know I just got back from San Francisco attending the most amazing Mindstone AI. weekend intensive. If you don't know, Mindstone AI is a learning technology platform that helps professionals and teams upskill and practical AI use. Rather than focusing on technical coding, it teaches everyday non-technical workers, like your girl, how to integrate AI tools into their workflows to boost productivity. Mindstone makes it so simple to use AI in a way nobody has

done yet, at least for me. You set AI up as an expert. You tell them if you want to update your resume, you say to AI, you are the most incredible resume writer who has 20 plus years placing people in the best job. Text is the lifeblood of AI. More information you can upload about you, the PDF of your past resumes, past jobs, maybe reviews of your work, whatever you can upload. Text is the lifeblood of AI. These steps alone will change the game for you on how you're using AI. That's just one tiny example of what I learned this weekend. You got to check out Mindstone today and how it can help you with your business needs, check out H-T-TPS,

colon, backslash, backslash, www. com slash go and check out mindstone.com. I ask you to try to find your passion. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was the day I was doing a brand shoot that I had been asked to be in because of my brand. There was a supermodel there. And so they asked me to do a couple of pictures alone with her.

Mind you was 20 years older than her. I was like rolling my eyes. I thought, oh my gosh, I can't believe you're doing this to me. But she was so cool, so nice. And I said to her, what piece of ice are you going to give me before they start snapping that camera at the two of us? And she said, just keep moving. Whatever you do, don't get stuck. Don't stay still.

Just keep moving. And it's so, so true. And I just think about that message that she imparted on me. I also think of, you know, I judged Miss America. And being around that team and the contestants for a week. spending time with all these people who had done these things so much more. They've been photographed so much more than I had been. I got to hear their conversations, see their poses, see what they were doing.

And it's funny, I'm never in a photo anymore without hitting the angles. And even if you look at it, it's crazy. I can even be speaking in most of them. I'll be hitting angles. I don't even know I'm doing it anymore. But I've spent so much time in front of cameras around people who are in front of cameras and being covered with video. It's second nature, right?

Like I saw for your stuff I didn't like, so I silently started tweaking it and fixing it. And I always watch the video back. You want to see yourself back, right? So put the reps in, get real. Spend time with people who've done the thing you want to do when you want to get better at. The other thing I would say is only ride and die with people who have your back. My partner totally has my back. She's a very confident person.

She doesn't second guess things. And I'm similar in that way. So for us, we kind of go in there like knowing it's going to go amazing. Those are the people you want to be with. You don't want to be with people full of doubt that don't really have your back. They're a second guessing you. They're giving you side eye, right? All of that's going to throw you off and not allow you to be your best.

The other thing I would say is colors matter, right? Like the colors of the set, the colors of the clothing you're going to wear. If you're doing, I was doing a shoot with somebody else, right? So knowing that our colors could work together. All those things impact a final image and the final work that you're going to get. So you want to be thoughtful about stuff. Doing a mood board ahead of time is super important. My partner had built out.

whole mood board about what she wanted us to do. Put the time and like success and great things don't just appear by chance 99% of the time. It's hard work. It's preparation. It's thoughtfulness. It's communication, right? It's working with people who are running at a high level and investing in you. The other thing I would say is remind yourself of other times you might have been nervous, what it was that you did different to pull it off, right? The things in the times I don't like photo shoots or video is when I was stiff and sweating and nervous, right? So I step into, I don't need to be like that anymore. I know things can, you know, there's tons of outtakes.

We don't need to use that stuff. If it didn't come out well, we'll throw that part in the trash and pick up the next part that looks great. Something will end up great. Like, you could go and take nine or ten pictures and one of them will be great, but that's probably all I're going to get, right? So go in with that mentality and be good with it. Like even these pro photo shoots or these, you know, Miss America contest, it's not all gold. most of it gets tossed out the window and that's okay that's part for the court so like be accepting and be real with yourself don't set this unrealistic idea that you know it's all has to be perfecting

that's not real that's fake and that's going to set you up for failure the other thing i would say is music music is so important for me it's that is everything if someone said to me there's going to be no music on set i'd be like what bringing my own boom box forget that no i need my hip-hop right like if you hit a beat for me, I don't care if it's that soul cycle on a run or in a photo shoot, you are going to get next level Monahan. That's what's going to happen because I can't help myself. I get so fired up, right? And I'm sure there's, I don't know what your music is. It can be anything, but just like bring that playlist of your life and get fired up for it and visualize that whole day going amazing and get excited and like start stepping into that

persona of like that best version of you, fired up, having fun, constantly moving, constantly viving, don't judge yourself, and I promise you you're going to get something really good. But again, it starts with that mindset and that knowing that, listen, I know this is going to be crazy. I know this is going to be next level. By the way, I haven't seen our final picks yet, our final video. So I'm talking a lot of trash right now. I'm assuming it's going to be great. But the stuff I saw behind the scenes I was super happy with. So we'll move forward with that attitude and move forward with that. Of course, the best is yet to come. I can't wait to see it. Okay, so that's my tips on how to show up as a best version, most confident version of you with photography, with doing a video.

Again, don't take it too seriously. Just have a blast. Have fun. Stop judging yourself. Know that everyone's more concerned about themselves than they ever are with us. Okay, so today I had the opportunity to go to church, and it was the nine-year anniversary of Voo Church, which is, if you've been with me, you know, I love by Voo, and you can watch Voo Church online. Today was the nine-year anniversary. It was so cool.

my son and I have been going now for I think almost four years, at least three, if not four now. And we absolutely love our church. It's incredible. But to hear our pastor walk us through that journey and hearing him talk about how nine years ago, it was him and a handful of friends sitting in his apartment calling it a church, right? They had a vision for the future. They had a vision for where they were going, but that vision wasn't real. They were in a little apartment room calling it a church.

And then he walked us through how over the next. next year he started you know to build and encourage others and the people who started it with him started encouraging others and the next thing you know they got a really small place at a rescue mission which was really small and he shows a picture and then a year after that it started building and getting bigger and bigger and they went to an elementary school and the elementary school allowed them to use their facility on the weekend so they could fit more people and then by the third year they were able to get a much larger location and then the pandemic hit and everything went to virtual

And that's hard because you think you're going to lose some ground. But instead, they came out of the pandemic so much stronger. They had built their online presence, their YouTube channel, their podcast, like, you know, starting to get millions of downloads. And they now secured a second location and bought a building. They didn't own it outright, but they, you know, were making payments on it. And then a year later, they paid off the building. And then they got another location.

And then our pastor's father became ill. And he had to step back from running his church. So our pastor bought his location. So now there's four locations. And they also are preaching at prisons. And like I said, online. And he just walked us through this whole trajectory from in his apartment nine years ago to now where they have four thriving locations, millions of views on YouTube, on the podcast.

You know, they're working with these prisons. I mean, there's thousands and thousands of people in Miami going to these different locations in Voo Church every single week. And the impact they're having is incredible. and massive. But he shared that if he had known how hard all this was going to be nine years ago, he probably wouldn't have done it because it would have been too daunting a task. But instead, he would just focus on that big vision that he had for his future and that next step that he could take, not knowing what would lie ahead, but having faith that God would guide him in that right

direction and that having faith that the best is yet to come. And he shared with us today that after his father stepped back a year ago and had cancer and was going through medical that today he is healed and healthy. And it's just, it's one miracle after another. And it just reminded me, you know, of my own journey, my own challenges. And I want you to think about yours that my gosh, of seven years ago, I'd known how hard it was going to be to build my own business and get here today. I probably wouldn't have done it.

I probably would have just said, hang it up. I'm going to go back to corporate and, you know, figure out another job. And I'm so grateful I don't. But to my pastor's point, finding success is a lot of work. But it is a journey of highs and lows and not giving up believing in yourself and focusing on your faith and reminding yourself that you need to surrender. You need to surrender to a higher power because you're not going to have all of the answers. And we can't assume that we are or blame ourselves when we don't or get locked up with fear because we don't know how to handle the uncertainty. Instead, let go, let God and remind yourself that the best is yet to come because it truly, truly is.

was just such a fun journey today to go through that experience with him. You can absolutely see if you go to his YouTube channel Voochurch, YouTube, you'll be able to see this message. And it's a nine year anniversary of Voochurch. And it's just, it's such a beautiful story. And it made it so real to me that we're all going through this journey. No matter what it is, nobody has all the answers. And yes, it's so much easier to do in community when you're in community with others that have your back, that are good people that are like-minded with you and when you have faith.

And it was an incredible day-to-day because Mass was that good and the message was that good. So no matter where you are on your journey, if you're not there, oh my gosh, life is short. Just start stepping into your passion and your purpose and know that the doors will open. No, it's not all going to be perfect. There's going to be plenty of turbulence along the way after I just got off my flight from L.A., and there was plenty of turbulence on that flight. But turbulence is temporary, right? And we just have to have that faith that we're meant for more.

we've been put here for a reason and not sure exactly how it's all going to work out, but it's all going to get better. And I'm going to stay focused on that future cast vision of where we are going and why we are doing what we're doing. And as we do that and we move forward with faith and when we practice gratitude in all that is so good in our lives, more goodness keeps coming in. So if you know me, you know that I love to work out. and I am over 50.

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35% off if you've been following me on social media then you know i just got back from san francisco attending the most amazing Mindstone AI weekend intensive. If you don't know, Mindstone AI is a learning technology platform that helps professionals and teams upskill and practical AI use. Rather than focusing on technical coding, it teaches everyday non-technical workers like your girl, how to integrate AI tools into their workflows to boost productivity. Mindstone makes it so simple to use AI in a way nobody has done yet,

at least for me. You set AI up as an expert. You tell them if you want to update your resume, you say to AI, you are the most incredible resume writer who has 20 plus years placing people in the best job. Text is the lifeblood of AI. More information you can upload about you, the PDF of your past resumes, past jobs, maybe reviews of your work, whatever you can upload. Text is the lifeblood of AI.

These steps alone will change the game for you on how you're using AI. That's just one tiny example of what I learned this weekend. You got to check out Mindstone today and how it can help you with your business needs. Check out HTTPS, colon, backslash, backslash, www. WW.minestone.com. Go and check out Mindstone.com. They say that every day your business is late to AI, you fall two days behind. But how do you keep up?

The competition is only moving faster. Fortunately, there's NetSuite next. You probably know NetSuite. the AI-powered business management suite that securely connects all of your data. It's a unified suite that brings your financials, inventory, commerce, HR, CR, CRM, into a single source of truth, trusted by over 43,000 customers. NetSuite Next is the next huge leap in how business gets done. Because AI is built into everything you do.

It automatically services custom insights throughout your day. AI agents work alongside you to solve problems and handle routine work. and anytime you have a question about anything, ask, just like you're having a conversation with a colleague. NetSuite is customized for a wide range of industry so it supports the way your business truly works. Whether your company earns millions or even hundreds of millions, it's time for NetSuite Next,

where your business meets AI. If I had needed this product, it is what I would use. For the first time ever, you can try NetSuite Next for free. If your revenues are at least in the, these seven figures, go to net suite.aI slash Monaghan, built for the every industry, ready for every boardroom, net suite.com.com. A.I. slash Monaghan. But the keys go back to you. And then I just say this, you know, having left this week with all these amazing women and my incredible partner, surround yourself with great people that have your back. It all starts there. For me,

when I was running with people who did not have my back for years and years, I wouldn't understand why things took so long. I wouldn't understand why things weren't necessarily going the way I'd hoped or wanted. And I understand it now. You got to remove the negative toxic people from your life if you want positive people to start showing up. And winning and succeeding and building momentum all comes from running with people who are running a little bit ahead of you. Stretch yourself to find those people. And I'm so grateful in so many different areas of my business, my podcast, my new business ventures that I'm running with people who are ahead of me. That's how we start running faster. So today is the time to invest in you. Maybe five years ago is the best time. Today is the only time.

Don't wait any longer. Don't wait for that future vision of you. I spent a couple of days this past week working with people I had never met before, forming relationships with incredible people that I know will be in my life as friends forever. And the only way you're going to start finding people like that is to show up in rooms where you don't know people, to show up and put yourself out there, to step into fear because fear is a green light that means go and go faster or grow and grow faster. And that's what my hope is for you. And if my stuff isn't the right stuff for you, that's fine too, but find a group where you feel you are called to join. Don't do it alone. No one succeeds alone. And that includes your girl right here. That is for sure. So wanting you,

to know that one of the messages I took away from this last week was everything is rigged in my favor. And the reality is it's all rigged in your favor too. Just start allowing it. Have faith that that is exactly how it's been set up for you and that the best is yet to come. Until next week, keep creating confidence. And remember, anytime you've got a question, you can shoot me a DM at LinkedIn and Instagram or you can go to my website, Heathermonahan.com and I will always answer your questions for you for free each week. Until next week, keep creating your confidence. On this journey with me, Thank you.