Courage & Spice: the podcast for humans with Self-doubt

Gemma David is a Chinese Medicine practitioner, Mindfulness teacher and is trained in mental health care. She owns The Quiet Heart, in the rocking city of Bristol. Gemma's ethos is about living in balance, within the body, and with the seasons. We talked about how living in alignment with our bodies, the seasons, our planet and our values are the raw ingredients for cultivating self-belief. Plus: loads of top tips for taking care of yourself during Winter.

Randi Buckley is a coach and teacher who helps women facing big life decisions. Her programme Healthy Boundaries for Kind People is revolutionary work. This is a practical, philosophical and (it ended up being) quite a personal conversation about how to create safety for ourselves in relationships. As most of us are about to spend prolonged time with our loved ones, this seemed like the perfect time to get together.

Rachael Lucas self-published her first book aged 40, and it went on to sell over 130,000 copies. She is now a best-selling novelist working on her fifth book and has just been nominated for a Carnegie Medal for her YA novel, The State of Grace. Rachael has an incredible story of resilience and tenacity in the face of self-doubt, and I wanted to talk to her about how she got to here. For anyone who loves books and words and has a dream (like me) of 'one day' writing a book, this episode is just for you.

Self-doubt has a rather surprising kryptonite and it feels like a bit of a game changer. I first became aware of this when I was coding my research interviews for my Master's dissertation about Self-doubt a few years ago, but I am now feeling ready to nail my flag to this mast! I talk a bit about how I discovered this, why I think it so useful and important, and then we’ll walk through how you can apply it right now.  You’ll find a worksheet to help you over at www.courageandspice.com

Rachael Maddox is a trauma resolution educator, coach and guide who’s helped hundreds of women and men resolve their sexual trauma and reclaim their pleasure, power and wholeness. In her first book, 'Secret Bad Girl' Rachael tells of her return to wildness, sensuality, health and embodied safety. We discuss the #metoo campaign, how this might be impacting you, what happens when we have a trauma response and what to do to take care of yourself. There IS life after trauma and you can heal.

The first year for any heart-centred business is a huge source of self-doubt: taking our creations and services out into the world with no guarantee of success is a cape-worthy endeavour!  Up until recently, Kate Ferris was a marketing manager working with global brands. Now she helps creative people find clarity and direction with marketing strategies to grow their businesses grow with a bit of soul. Kayte and I talk about what the first year of self-employment is really like.

Kevin Braddock is the founder of Torchlight, a project that is all about how to ask for help. Kevin has over 20 years experience in print media as writer and editor and has worked for GQ, Esquire, The Face and The Guardian. Kevin’s story is both a personal account and a wake-up call about men's experience of mental health. This episode is one of incredible resilience, tenacity and compassion as Kevin shares his experience and how he is helping others through his work with Torchlight.

Allison Sadler is a creative entrepreneur, lifestyle blogger, designer, maker, stylist and mentor. With Her partner in all-things Mr C, she co-owns the award-winning People Shop in Birmingham. And she might just be the most fun person on the internet. Allison recently started a hashtag project called #freeupyourinsta all about embracing imperfection and how to have fun and be yourself online. We dive deeply into this and have a fascinating conversation about what it means to be online. Enjoy!

If you work in a traditionally male-dominated industry, and you've ever felt undermined or overlooked at work, this episode is for you. Women, black and ethnic minorities are under-represented, under-recruited and under-promoted in STEM roles. The reasons for this are both obvious and complex. Allison Johnstone leads Equate Scotland's learning and development programme. She talks candidly and openly about women's experience in STEM, whats changing and why the issues are so much bigger than our self-doub

Sara Tasker is a gifted photographer and writer and she mentors other creatives through her ecourses and podcast: Hashtag Authentic. She now has 'The Official Blue Ticks of Validation' on both Instagram and Twitter! In our conversation, Sara shares generously and openly about the realities of 'success' and what she is learning about both her self-doubt and her self-belief.

If you’ve ever walked into a meeting, or a networking event, or even a neighbour’s BBQ and felt the belly churning dread that at some point everyone here is going to find out who you really are, this episode is just for you. In this episode, we talk about where the concept of feeling like an imposter first arose and the misconceptions of it. I also share a process you can apply straight away to begin to shift your approach to feeling like an imposter.

Liz Keifer has been a professional actor for over 30 years. She played 'the girlfriend' on Happy Days, Family Ties, Cheers and 21 Jumpstreet and countless movies before securing the part of Blake Thorpe in soap opera Guiding Light where she stayed for 17 years. Liz shares what this has taught her about how to become rejection proof.

In this interview with Professor Tom Schuller about his latest book The Paula Principle, Tom talks about how and why women tend to work below their level of competence. This is where the systemic workplace culture, meets our own experience of self-doubt. A must listen for every employee.

In this first episode, I introduce myself, the intention of Courage & Spice and what the research tells us about the important purpose of self-doubt (yes, it has a use!). We talk about the relationship between our personal experience of self-doubt and what our culture stands to gain from our worries and fears. We also look at The Five P's, so you can uncover and name how you tend to respond to self-doubt.