Unshakable Confidence: Helping High-Achieving Women Lead with Calm, Clarity, and Confidence—at Work and in Life
Hosted by Coco Duan, a former Fortune 500 executive turned Life & Leadership Coach, the Unshakable Confidence podcast is your weekly guide to building the self-trust and resilience needed to thrive personally and professionally. Coco empowers high-achieving women who secretly struggle with self-doubt to cultivate unshakable confidence, enabling them to lead with calm, clarity and confidence. Each episode offers practical strategies and insightful guidance on topics such as: Rewiring limiting beliefs Regulating your nervous system Setting healthy boundaries Overcoming perfectionism and people-pleasing Aligning with your core values With over 20 years of corporate leadership experience and years of deep personal healing and transformation, Coco has helped numerous women worldwide transform their inner narratives and step into their full potential. Discover more about her "Becoming Unshakable" VIP Coaching Program at: https://www.cocoduancoaching.com/vip-coaching.
Episodes
Ever feel like multiple voices are battling in your head when you’re stressed?
One part spirals into shame.
Another jumps to defend, fix, or shut down.
And sometimes, a calmer voice steps in with clarity.
✅ These “voices” are different parts of you: vulnerable, protector, and wise adult.
✅ Under stress, the wrong part often takes the wheel—and drives your reaction
Leadership begins with self-leadership.
Your power lies in n...
Have you ever felt like you’re being pulled in a dozen different directions? One part of you wants to rest, another tells you you're lazy. One part wants to go out and connect, another begs you to stay home and hide. If that sounds familiar, you're not alone—and this episode is for you.
In today’s episode, I’m introducing you to one of the most powerful tools I use in my own healing and with my clients: Parts...
Are you pushing people to perform—or pulling them into their potential?
Most leaders were taught to lead by pressure:
Demand more. Set the bar. Get frustrated when others fall short.
That may get short-term results—but it drains energy and destroys trust.
✅ Push leadership activates fear and burnout
✅ Pull leadership inspires through presence, trust, and emotional safety
When you lead from a regulated, grounded state—people...
What if the key to leadership confidence wasn’t learning something new
But spending quality time with yourself?
We often say we want to know ourselves better.
But are we actually spending time with yourself—without distractions?
✅ Just 5 minutes a day of solitude (no phone, no noise) helps you:
- Tune into your body’s signals, emotions, and patterns
- Observe your thoughts instead of being ruled by them
- Build the ...
Think you’re “just not that kind of person”?
Think again. Your personality test might be showing you your adaptations—not your essence.
Personality tests like MBTI can be helpful snapshots, but they’re not the full story.
They often reflect your current coping strategies, not your true self.
✅ Here’s what I’ve learned from shifting from ISTJ-T to ENFJ-A:
- Many traits are adaptive, not fixed—social an...
Think your glass of wine, Netflix binge, or late-night scroll is helping you unwind?
It might be making things worse.
We often reach for comfort when we're stressed—but many common habits are actually numbing, not regulating.
✅ Unhealthy coping disconnects you from your body and buries unprocessed emotions
✅ It disrupts your stress cycle and builds dependency on external relief
If you don’t feel it, you can’t hea...
Ever feel like your body goes into full-on panic mode after one urgent email?
Even when your brain knows you're not in danger… your body doesn’t.
Picture this: You get a surprise email about a high-stakes meeting with the CEO in 48 hours.
Your heart races.
Your chest tightens.
Your mind goes blank.
You’re not just stressed—you’re hijacked by your nervous system.
✅ Your nervous system responds to perceived danger, not...
Have you ever held yourself back from speaking up, showing up, or just being you—because you were afraid of what others might think?
In this episode, I’m getting real about one of the most invisible, exhausting patterns I used to live with: the fear of judgment. From silencing myself in corporate meetings to hiding my coaching practice on social media, I share the personal stories and emotional costs of worrying about ...
If there’s no tiger chasing you…
why does your body still feel like you’re in danger?
That pit in your stomach.
That racing heart.
The urgency.
In today’s Daily Power Lesson, you’ll learn:
✅ Why your nervous system responds to perceived danger from the past—not just what’s happening now
✅ How unprocessed emotional wounds keep your body in fight-or-flight, even when...
You’ve worked on your presence. You’ve sharpened your skills.
But if your nervous system is hijacked—you still can’t lead with clarity, confidence, or calm.
In this 5-minute Daily Power Lesson, I reveal the #1 leadership skill no one ever taught me in my 20 years in corporate:
Nervous system regulation.
You’ll learn what your nervous system actually does, why it holds the key to your thoughts, emotions, and actions—and h...
What if the reason you doubt yourself, overgive, or stay silent…
started when you were just a toddler?
In this 5-minute Daily Power Lesson, I reveal the hidden conflict at the root of people-pleasing, perfectionism, and self-doubt:
💡 The need for attachment (to feel loved and accepted)
💡 The need for authenticity (to express your true self)
When these two needs clash, we choose attachment—every time.
That’s ho...
You can’t lead others powerfully if you’re disconnected from yourself.
In this 5-minute Daily Power Lesson, I walk you through the 3 essential pillars of inner leadership:
✨ Self-Awareness – Know yourself at the core: your strengths, your shadows, your patterns
✨ Self-Acceptance – Make peace with yourself—you can't shame yourself into growth
✨ Self-Trust – Stand by your truth, especially when things...
You’ve taken the trainings. You’ve read the books.
So why do you still freeze up in high-stakes meetings, overthink every word, or struggle to stay calm under pressure?
In this 5-minute Daily Power Lesson, I reveal the missing piece most leadership advice ignores:
👉 If your nervous system is hijacked, you can’t apply the leadership skills you’ve learned.
I’ll share real stories from my 20-year corporate career—and unpack...
Welcome to Daily Power Lesson—your daily dose of leadership, confidence, and authentic empowerment!
In just 5 minutes a day, I’ll help you shift your mindset, regulate your nervous system, and step into the powerful, confident, and authentic leader you’re meant to be.
These bite-sized episodes are designed to spark clarity, courage, and calm—so you can become the CEO of your inner life and lead from the inside out.
Let’s...
If you’re the woman who’s always in motion—holding it all together at work and at home—but secretly running on empty, this episode is for you.
In this masterclass-style episode, I walk you through a radical reframe that changed my life: Rest isn’t a luxury. It’s a leadership strategy. I’ll introduce you to the real reason it’s so hard to slow down (hint: it’s not willpower), and teach you how to work with your nervou...
Have you ever felt calm one moment and anxious the next—without knowing why? Or found yourself snapping at someone you care about… even though your brain was saying “it’s not a big deal”? Have you ever known you’re safe, but your body feels like you’re being chased by a tiger?
That used to be me—all the time.
In this episode, I’m sharing the #1 thing that took my healing, growth, and confidence to the next level: under...
If you’ve ever walked out of a high-stakes meeting and immediately started criticizing yourself. If you’ve ever told yourself, “I should’ve done better,” or “What’s wrong with me?” If your mind spirals with “shoulds” and “not enoughs” after even the smallest misstep.
You are not alone. I used to live there too.
In this deeply personal and practical episode, I walk you through one of the biggest silent confidence killers...
What if the very thing you’re avoiding is the key to everything you want?
In this heartfelt episode, I share the truth most people overlook: embracing discomfort isn’t a punishment—it’s the path to becoming the boldest, most grounded version of yourself. From physical and mental challenges to social and relational growth, I’ll walk you through the exact ways I practice discomfort daily—and how it’s helped me feel more ...
If networking makes you cringe, feels forced or transactional, or just downright awkward—you’re not alone. In this episode, Coco Duan, former Fortune 500 executive turned life coach, shares her personal journey from dreading networking to building a life-changing web of rich, genuine relationships.
Through her 3M Framework—Mindset, Method, and Micro-Bravery—you’ll learn how to redefine networking, overcome limiting bel...
If you've ever asked yourself, “Is therapy or coaching really worth the money?”—this episode is for you.
I open up about the years I spent silently struggling, believing I could out-achieve my pain… until I couldn’t. In this heartfelt episode, I share the true cost of waiting to ask for help—and how investing in therapy and coaching changed everything for me. I’ll also walk you through six common beliefs that keep...
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