Confidence isn’t just a feeling—it’s the cornerstone of achieving success in your life and business. Yet for many entrepreneurs and high-achievers, insecurity can be the silent saboteur holding them back from reaching their true potential. In this week’s episode of The Amanda Kaufman Show, I sat down with Brandon Foster, the Confidence Coach and Encouragement King, to uncover how mastering your inner game can pave the way for extraordinary growth.

Understanding the Roots of Insecurity

As Brandon explains, insecurity can stem from many sources:

• Generational trauma passed down through families

• Upbringing and experiences that shaped your self-perception

• Societal and cultural pressures that reinforce the fear of failure

“Insecurity is one of the biggest emotional stumbling blocks,” Brandon says. “It stops you from taking risks, asking for help, and investing in your growth. But when you overcome it, you unlock the freedom to try, fail, and ultimately succeed.”

One of the biggest breakthroughs for Brandon came when he realized that confidence isn’t about eliminating fear—it’s about learning to take action despite it.

The Power of Authentic Confidence

Authenticity plays a key role in building confidence. For Brandon, this means showing up as your full, unfiltered self. He shares how his journey as a confidence coach began when he started helping fellow entrepreneurs overcome the mental barriers preventing them from implementing practical business strategies.

“Confidence doesn’t come from doing what everyone else is doing,” Brandon says. “It comes from knowing what’s right for you, trusting your intuition, and creating your own rules to the game.”

This means rejecting hustle culture’s glorification of struggle and instead embracing strategic action. “Why walk 1,000 miles when you could take an Uber?” Brandon quips.

Overcoming the Fear of Failure

One of the most common blocks for entrepreneurs is the fear of failure. Many of us attach our self-worth to outcomes, which makes the idea of falling short feel unbearable. But as Brandon points out, failure is just part of the process.

“When you’re afraid of failing, you make it mean something about yourself—that you’re unworthy, incapable, or unloved,” Brandon explains. “But what if failure didn’t mean anything about you? What if it was just part of the journey to success?”

This perspective shift can make all the difference. By detaching from the meaning we assign to our outcomes, we free ourselves to take bold, decisive action.

Swinging for the Fences

Brandon’s favorite metaphor for taking bold action is baseball: “If you’re going to swing, swing for the fences. Why settle for a bunt or a single when you could hit a home run?”

This isn’t about perfection—it’s about commitment. Even if you miss, the act of swinging with intention positions you for greater success in the long run.

Amanda shared her own experience with this mindset shift, recalling a time when she was coached to stop using the word “ideally” when discussing her goals. “Using words like ‘ideally’ is a way of hedging our bets,” she says. “But when you’re not fully committed, you introduce doubt and fog into your decisions.”

The key is to make firm decisions and follow through with conviction. Even if you fall short, you’ll learn valuable lessons and gain clarity for your next attempt.

Practical Steps to Build Confidence

Here are some actionable tips from Brandon and Amanda to start mastering your inner game:

1. Recognize the stories you tell yourself. Are you attaching unnecessary meaning to your outcomes? Reframe your mindset to focus on growth, not perfection.

2. Take small, consistent actions. Confidence builds through action. Start with one step that pushes you slightly out of your comfort zone, and build momentum from there.

3. Celebrate your progress. Whether you’re hitting singles or home runs, every step forward deserves acknowledgment. Celebrate what you’ve achieved and use it as fuel for your next goal.

4. Trust your intuition. Confidence grows when you honor your instincts and make decisions that align with your values.

5. Surround yourself with support. Join communities, invest in mentorship, and seek out encouragement from people who want to see you succeed.

How to Work with Brandon Foster

Brandon’s mission is to help entrepreneurs like you tap into the “untapped badassery” that’s already within you. If you’re ready to unleash your inner confidence, you can:

• Follow him on Instagram

• Visit his website at brandonrfoster.com

• Check out his book Confident AF: Unleash Your Inner Badass on Amazon

Final Thoughts

Confidence isn’t just nice to have—it’s the foundation for achieving your dreams. As Brandon puts it, “When you’re confident, you’re unstoppable.”

If this episode resonated with you, take a moment to reflect on where insecurity might be holding you back. What’s one action you can take today to step out of your comfort zone and swing for the fences?

For more insights and resources to help you thrive and scale your business, grab your free copy of the Thrive & Scale Expert Blueprint.

Don’t forget to subscribe to The Amanda Kaufman Show and share this post with someone who needs a confidence boost!

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Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Confidence Coaching

06:05 Overcoming Insecurity and Building Confidence

11:58 Swinging for the Fences: Commitment to Action

17:07 Conclusion and Resources for Growth

Full Transcript

Brandon Foster (00:00)

And when you are confident and you are secure in who you are, you're overcoming that insecurity. Insecurity is one of the biggest emotional stumbling blocks of building any business.

because if you're insecure, you won't let people support you. If you're insecure, you won't try new things. If you're insecure, you know, in your finances, you won't spend the money to run paid ads. Like it just goes on and on and on and on and on. And there's many pieces of, you know, where insecurity comes from. It comes from, you know, passed down trauma from generations. It comes from...

how you were raised, comes down to how people treated you. There's so many pieces, just like any belief or any paradigm is shaped by your environment and what you decide to believe and your perceptions. It goes on and on and on. confidence was something that I struggled with.

Amanda Kaufman (01:08)

Well, hello and welcome back to the Amanda Kaufman show and we are continuing our series on the coaches that don't suck. So of course we had to have Brandon Foster on the show. Brandon, welcome. How are you doing?

Brandon Foster (01:23)

I am good. Thank you so much for having me today, boo.

Amanda Kaufman (01:27)

So good. okay, Brandon and I go way back a couple of years now. We met in a mastermind because we really believe in mentorship and we believe in the power of coaching and getting better at what we do. And we just hit it off so hard. And he's actually come and spoke at my live event a few times, both like in person and virtually. This dude knows so much about confidence and.

showing up with your full authentic expression. But Brynn, why don't you take 30 seconds and introduce yourself to the listener.

Brandon Foster (01:59)

Yeah, my name is Brandon Foster. I am known as both the confidence coach and the encouragement king, which simply means that I help amazing people like you who are watching and listening to tap into the untapped badassery that's always been inside of you to do things that you've never done before and go where you've never gone before.

Amanda Kaufman (02:25)

love that. That's so cool. So and Brandon, who do you typically work with like in your in your business these days?

Brandon Foster (02:33)

Whoever will hire me.

man. I really thrive working on people who have the basics of their business down. So they know what a funnel is. They know how to market. They know how to service their clients and they haven't developed that gut instinct, that divine intuition. They are, you know, ready to what I call turn heads in their industry.

Amanda Kaufman (02:35)

I don't even need confidence, I love it.

Brandon Foster (03:02)

and create their own rules to the game and truly not just be leaders in their organization, but leaders inside of their industry. know, when everybody else is going right, you go left. Why? Because it's the right decision for you. It's what's right for you. That's a big piece of it. The second big piece, actually there's three pieces. So then this other piece that I really love, I really love working with faith-based people. They don't have to necessarily hold my same religious beliefs, but

It's really hard to build a business on your own and tapping into divine intelligence and trusting that the universe, God, whatever you believe has your back is really important. So that's number two. And then the third piece is, is we're just addicted to hustle and grind culture. And it's not that taking action is a bad or a negative thing. You have to take action inside of your business. I always tell my clients.

Amanda Kaufman (03:47)

Mmm.

Brandon Foster (03:56)

You know, God puts the worms out there, but you gotta leave the nest. And I also truly, truly believe that taking action shouldn't feel hard. That sacrifice and hardship and, you know, wearing these badges of, did it the hardest way possible. you know, it's, you just wanna get to the destination. Doesn't matter how you get to the destination. So we gotta stop.

you know, priding ourselves and walking a thousand miles when we could have taken the Uber.

Amanda Kaufman (04:29)

Right. my gosh. Yes. I love that. You know, I was, I was just catching up with another friend today and we were talking about our zones of genius and, know, we both love to talk about strategy and strategy is the decision making that you make about the resources that you have to get the best possible outcome. So, you know, that, that whole idea of like slowing down to speed up, you know, operating more from your strengths, choosing to do things like you said.

Hop in that Uber. Like, you know, it's it's it is, I think, very glorified to be in suffering and struggle. And I'm like, you know, I feel like this struggle and the suffering or the pain, it's like going to be there sort of no matter what you do. Like, do we have to necessarily cultivate it? Like maybe we choose to address even.

bigger challenges or bigger problems rather than kind of staying attached at this lower level of energy. Yeah. I'm so curious, like what motivated you to choose to specialize and niche down into the area of confidence? Like why that?

Brandon Foster (05:37)

I didn't. That was really, I really feel this isn't going to sound so like, do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do

Amanda Kaufman (05:45)

Perfect. We're here for it.

Hmm.

Brandon Foster (06:03)

I remember being a great encourager and it's been a very constant in my life. And the other constant in my life is that I have dealt with major pieces of insecurity. And when you are confident and you are secure in who you are, you're overcoming that insecurity. Insecurity is one of the biggest emotional stumbling blocks of building any business.

because if you're insecure, you won't let people support you. If you're insecure, you won't try new things. If you're insecure, you know, in your finances, you won't spend the money to run paid ads. Like it just goes on and on and on and on and on. And there's many pieces of, you know, where insecurity comes from. It comes from, you know, passed down trauma from generations. It comes from...

how you were raised, comes down to how people treated you. There's so many pieces, just like any belief or any paradigm is shaped by your environment and what you decide to believe and your perceptions. It goes on and on and on. confidence was something that I struggled with.

And I found my knack for it when I started my travel business, decided to make it a legitimate business.

I ended up doing a mastermind program to help me really turn it into a legitimate business. It taught me all the practical pieces. They didn't really have a lot in terms of mindset. They had a mindset coach at the time, but not a lot of mindset. And I finished the program and I just became this force within that community of encouragement and helping people overcome their own insecurities to really start to implement a lot of the practical pieces, because people were getting stuck. So was like this amazing program.

that was telling people how to do everything, but like more than half the people weren't actually doing any of the things because of how they were thinking about the things, how they believed about the things and their own insecurities. And so when their mindset person left, you know, they asked me originally, they said, will you be a mentor? Cause they, I, know, I think internally, maybe they didn't even feel like I was qualified to be considered an expert yet. And me and my own audaciousness was like,

Amanda Kaufman (07:49)

Hmm.

Brandon Foster (08:05)

I should be called an expert and I probably wasn't. It was probably like me stepping into that and I really, you know, kind of believe that. But I loved it. And so from there, I started to create original mindset content for their program to address every single practical component of building a fully functioning travel business and how you think about that and how you think about yourself. And from there,

It's just really snowballed into this huge love of empowering individuals to create the business that they want and helping them to truly understand that they're not screwing up and you're not broken. There's not something wrong with you and that it's not really the practical pieces that are creating those stumbling blocks because if you boil things down, and I know you're gonna love this so much, if you boil things down,

Marketing is just telling the people what you offer. That's it. And when it comes to posting, you're literally just typing things, you're pulling pictures and you're saying things. Like when you start to boil down things to their literal essence of what the action actually is, the action of itself is not hard. What makes things hard as entrepreneur is the energy.

of doing the new things and all of our fears, all of our worries, all of our doubts, all the things we've been taught, all the things that we believe that start to interfere with the actual pieces. And that was a big piece that my own mindset person told me, Amanda, because I was getting ready for a very, what I thought was a hard conversation in my business. And I'm like, this has to be a hard conversation. I don't know what they're going to say. I don't know what they're going to think and all they're going to react, respond, know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And she said,

There's no such thing as a hard conversation. She goes, you having a conversation is no different than you ordering your favorite treat at Dairy Queen Blizzard at the drive-thru. It's your lips and your mouth moving and sharing information and them sharing information back. She says, what makes it hard is the energy behind it, the feelings behind it, what you want out of the conversation. It's all these other pieces, but the actual practical piece in and of itself is not hard.

Amanda Kaufman (10:21)

You're right. I do love that. You know, because I work with a lot of people that are starting out doing marketing for the first time, perhaps like it's maybe the first time that they're showing up building a personal brand on social media. And there's just all this anxiety and this additional baggage that we tend to carry with us of like, well, what if what if this happens and it doesn't work? You know, and it's like, well.

If it doesn't work, you'll get to analyze what happened, right? If it doesn't work, then you're gonna have learned so many other things along the way. Why do we have so much pressure on ourselves? And maybe I'll just even ask you this. Why do you think it is that a lot of entrepreneurs put so much pressure on themselves to get it exactly right the first time that they try something? Where do you think that comes from?

Brandon Foster (11:09)

It's just assignment and meaning. They make it mean that if it doesn't work the first time that it's never going to work, that they're a failure, that they're not worthy or incapable or that they're not loved. It's just assignment and meaning. I feel like one of the biggest journey pieces for me is to detach from any sense of meaning from my KPIs, from my numbers, from the income that you make.

And it's not that the numbers don't matter. It's not that the money doesn't matter. You need to know those pieces. Where it's not helpful is when it starts to assign your self-worth. When it starts to assign your lovability. When it starts to assign what it means about God or the universe's view of you or what is destined in your future or whether there are people for you to serve or people not to serve. That's what causes the real havoc.

And the joke that always tell my coaching clients is imagine if Thomas Edison had to, you know, said that, you know, after try number two to invent electric, the light bulb, like, I must be terrible. God doesn't love me. I'm never going to do this. And just stopped, you know, for him when he was interviewed and asked, how does it feel that you

Amanda Kaufman (12:25)

So late.

Brandon Foster (12:29)

had tried a thousand ways and it didn't work, you, you know, I think it was like, do you feel like a failure or something like that? And he says, no, I've discovered a thousand ways that it didn't work to lead me to how it would work. You know, I just found a thousand ways that it wouldn't try. And, you know, I had a call today, you really love this too. And the call was really essentially to help this higher level person.

Amanda Kaufman (12:42)

Exactly.

Brandon Foster (12:54)

with any of the beliefs or paradigms around what she wants to see happen in the next year inside of her business. And she goes, well, I set all these goals and I said, stop saying the word goals. So just substitute goals for decisions. And it made her pause for a second. And I explained to her, know, goals at one point, I feel like were a very helpful term to use.

Amanda Kaufman (13:09)

Mmm.

Brandon Foster (13:20)

However, I feel like the term has been overplayed. So it's lost a little bit of its meaning because now when someone sets a goal, they don't really set a goal. Like if you set a stretch goal, the stretch goal is what you really want, but you're afraid of disappointment or you're afraid you're not gonna make it. And so it becomes a stretch goal so you don't judge yourself if you don't make it. And then we have the normal goal, the smart goal, which is the realistic goal.

And sometimes I feel like people rely on those, but they don't actually allow them to grow the way that they can grow because they're not pushing themselves outside of their comfort zone. And so, you know, I love Earl Nightingale's definition of success, which is progressive realization of a worthy ideal. And Bob Proctor, if any of are familiar with Bob Proctor's work, he always said, you never change the goal, you can change the approach and you can change the time period.

So my reasoning behind telling her this was I wanted her to understand that once you decide you're gonna do something, it's inevitable it's gonna happen. And if you decide you're gonna do it, you can change the time, you can change your approach just like Thomas Edison did with the light bulb. But once you've decided to do this, you've decided to be a coach, you've decided to own a business, you decided to go to this level, once you've decided,

Amanda Kaufman (14:28)

Hmm.

Brandon Foster (14:45)

you're gonna get there because you've already decided you're gonna figure it out no matter what no matter how long it takes no matter what it costs

Amanda Kaufman (14:50)

I just adore

the energy of that because you're right. Like actually just last week I got coaching myself about my tendency to use the word ideally. And I posted to my stories, I'm breaking up with ideally, right? Because it's kind of the same thing where you're hedging or you're kind of creating like this perception of psychological safety. And I say perception because like,

it seems safer to have the realistic goal versus the stretch goal. It seems safer. But in my experience, when I'm not convicted in a decision and I'm in that deferment place or I'm in that kind of mid zone, that's where all the fogginess is and the lack of clarity is. And I would much rather make a firm decision and go full tilt like,

play, like leave everything on the field. And, you know, let's say that I do that and I authentically really do that. And for whatever reason, don't hit the predetermined goal. I like to think of the word target. I'm like, okay, here's the target. Let's say for whatever reason, I don't hit the target. I don't want it to be because I was, you know, wishy washy about my commitment to hitting the target.

If I miss the target, I want it to be because I was Olympic level committed to hitting that target and whatever went wrong, I'll be able to identify that or I'll be able to get a little bit closer to what was causing that delay in achievement of hitting that target. But if I'm introducing kind of the variable, if you will, of not being emotionally committed or convicted that I was going to do the thing.

That's so much harder to feel good about, you know? So it's like, are you really creating that psychological safety if you're living in that place? Because you're really just underperforming and you're just living, you know, in sort of a medium lukewarm attempt kind of version of your life.

Brandon Foster (16:55)

Absolutely, I couldn't agree more with what you said and there's something to be restated in the idea that if you give it your all, you know you gave it your all, right? Whereas if you don't give it your all, then you're left with wondering, I wonder what would have happened if I had given it my all? Would it have worked if I had put everything that I had into it? The analogy that I like to use if you're gonna

swing a bat in baseball, you should swing it for the fences. Like why would you, if like, because if you swing for the fences and you miss the ball, you're gonna strike out. If you don't swing for the fences and you miss the ball, yes, you're still striking out. But let's talk about when you hit the ball. Because if you don't swing for the fences and you hit the ball, you can still ground out, you can still only get to first base.

But if every single time you're swinging inside of your business, you swing for the fences when you do hit the ball, you're gonna hit a home run, you're gonna hit a grand slam. So if you're gonna swing the ball, swing the bat to hit the ball, you might as well swing for the fences.

Amanda Kaufman (18:04)

of this. So Brandon, what is the best way for people to follow you?

Brandon Foster (18:08)

would follow me on Instagram at Brandon R. Foster and YouTube. mean, you find me one place the goal is right Amanda that you find me in all the places. That is the goal. I would say the best way for all of you to get an experience and feel for who I am on my work is to buy my book. I have a book that's on Amazon. It is the holiday season. I don't know when you're hearing this, but we're talking about this during the holiday season.

Amanda Kaufman (18:18)

Exactly!

Brandon Foster (18:35)

My husband has been doing all these cool Photoshop's of my book and Santa's knapsack and everything else. My book is on Amazon, Confident AF, Unleash Your Inner Badass. It's just a great inspirational, motivational, encouraging tool to have in your back pocket as you build your business.

Amanda Kaufman (18:42)

you

So good, and we'll make sure to have the link to Brandon's book and all of his socials in the show notes. So listener, thank you so much for joining us. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a five star review. It helps others decide whether they wanna listen to the episode. And come on, Brandon did a great job. He deserves it. Go ahead and share this with three of your friends who need a little uplift, a little conviction recharge, if you will, and we will see you.

on the next episode. Have a great day.