There’s a specific kind of Sunday that shows up every August. The pool towels are still damp on the railing. The kids’ schedules are about to flip from “whenever” to “6:45am, no excuses.” And somewhere in the back of your mind, a quiet voice starts asking what you actually did with these last few months.

I felt that voice this week.

Summer has a strange power over adults. We don’t get summer vacation anymore, not really, but we still feel its ending in our bodies. The light changes. The pace changes. And if we’re honest, most of us made a list back in June of everything we meant to do with this season, and most of us are looking at that list right now wondering where the time went.

Here’s what my summer actually looked like. I became a grandmother, I spent time with my grandson, my son, and my daughter-in-law in DC, I went to Scottsdale with one daughter, visited another in Charlotte, flew to Michigan to see my best friend from college, someone I’ve known since we were eighteen, and had my three youngest home with me the whole season. I was on the road more than I was at my desk, and when I wasn’t on the road, my house was full.

And if I’m honest, some part of me feels a little guilty about that. Not because any of it was wrong. Because I’m used to measuring my summers by output, and this one doesn’t look like that on paper.

Here’s what I want to offer you instead of guilt, mine included.

Endings are information.

The end of summer works like a checkpoint. You get to look at the last ten weeks and ask a much more useful question than “did I do enough.” You get to ask: what did I learn about what I actually want?

Maybe you learned that you need more unstructured time than your calendar currently allows, maybe you learned that the trip you almost didn’t take was the best decision you made all year. Maybe you learned that “relaxing” for you doesn’t mean stillness, it means a different kind of motion. That’s useful data, and it’s worth writing down before the fall calendar swallows it.

This is the third piece of the REAL Method®: Ask Yourself What You Want. Not what you think you should want. Not what worked for you five years ago. What you actually want, right now, based on what this season just taught you.

Transitions are where confidence gets built.

We tend to think confidence lives in the big, dramatic moments. The stage. The pitch. The interview. But confidence is mostly built in small transitions like this one, the shift from summer’s looseness back into fall’s structure. How you handle that shift, whether you meet it with dread or with intention, is a rehearsal for how you’ll handle every other transition ahead of you this year.

That guilt I mentioned, the quiet voice keeping score of hours worked versus hours spent with my grandson, my daughters, my oldest friend, comes from an old measuring stick, one built for a season of my life that isn’t this one. Becoming a grandmother this year changed what I want my time to add up to. I don’t need to apologize for a summer that reflected that.

So before the backpacks come out and the calendar fills back in, take fifteen minutes this week. Not to plan Q4. Just to notice.

Here are three questions worth sitting with before Labor Day:

1. What worked this summer that I want to protect going forward? Maybe it’s a slower morning routine, a weekly dinner with no phones, a project that finally got your full attention. Name it specifically so it doesn’t quietly disappear when the schedule fills back in.
2. What did I learn about what I actually want? Not what you thought you’d want in June. What the last ten weeks actually showed you.
3. What am I ready to let go of? An obligation you kept out of habit, a version of “busy” that never served you, a comparison you kept making. Fall is a natural moment to set it down.

Summer’s almost over. Think of it as a hinge, the point where we get to decide which way we swing next.

Here’s to a strong close to summer, and an even stronger start to fall.

What’s one thing this summer taught you about what you want? Hit reply and let me know, I read every response. Olivia and I actually talked through becoming a grandmother and how confidence grows through family transitions in this episode of Her Unshakeable Confidence, or you can find the full REAL Method® framework in REAL Confidence.

The post The Last Sunday of Summer appeared first on Simone Knego.

My kids grew up with screens in their hands. So did yours, most likely. And somewhere along the way, a lot of kids started believing that playing a game online with a headset on counts as hanging out with friends.

It doesn’t.

Watch a teenager’s face when you ask them to call someone instead of texting. For a lot of kids, that dread has nothing to do with shyness. Nobody ever sat them down and walked them through it. In our house, that meant real, unglamorous practice. Role playing what to say when you call to make a doctor’s appointment. Making a teenager order their own food at a restaurant instead of pointing at the menu. Sitting through the awkward silence of a phone call instead of rescuing them with a text. It wasn’t always comfortable. But, it worked. Our kids can walk into a room, make a phone call, and hold a conversation with an adult, because they got reps in. This is one way parents can help close the growing workforce communication skills gap at its roots.

That’s a parenting story. It’s also a workforce problem, and the numbers make that clear.

The gap doesn’t stay home when kids grow up

According to a British Council report on Gen Z in the workplace, 70 percent of business leaders now name poor communication as a top soft skills gap among younger hires. Indeed’s survey of employers found that 47 percent believe Gen Z lacks satisfactory communication skills, compared to just 11 percent who say the same about Gen X. The numbers highlight the workforce communication skills gap facing new generations today.

A Harris Poll conducted for Fortune put a number on what that looks like day to day: 82 percent of managers say new hires from Generation Z need additional support, time, and training to build basic soft skills, and 65 percent of young employees admitted they don’t know what to talk about with coworkers. Workforce communication skills gap solutions start with early and intentional training.

None of that is a character flaw. It’s a training gap, and it starts long before day one on the job. Kids who grew up connecting through a screen never got the practice that used to be standard: picking up the phone, sitting through an awkward silence, reading a room. Then they walk into your workplace and everyone wonders why onboarding feels harder than it used to.

What this costs a workplace

A lack of communication skills doesn’t stay contained to one uncomfortable meeting. It shows up in missed deadlines because no one wanted to speak up early, client relationships that stall because a phone call felt like too much, and teams that quietly disengage rather than have the direct conversation that would fix the problem. Communication style clashes are now cited as the single biggest challenge facing multigenerational workforces, ahead of nearly every other workplace friction point leaders are tracking in 2026. Addressing the workforce communication skills gap should be a priority for any organization aiming for long-term success.

Organizations that treat this as an HR footnote are underestimating it. The organizations getting ahead of it are treating communication as a trainable, coachable skill, the same way they’d train a technical competency, instead of assuming it should have arrived pre-installed.

Respect yourself enough to have the hard conversation

This is the first pillar of my REAL Method®, Respect Yourself. Respecting yourself starts with believing you’re worth showing up for, fully present, in a real conversation, not hiding behind a screen name, a Slack message, or an email you keep rewriting instead of just picking up the phone. That applies to a sixteen-year-old learning to order their own food. It applies just as much to a twenty-four-year-old avoiding a direct conversation with their manager.

Here’s the encouraging part. This is trainable at any age. A few places to start, whether you’re raising kids or building onboarding for a team:

• Make phone calls and face-to-face conversations the default, not the exception. Normalize picking up the phone instead of defaulting to the message that’s easier to send.
• Practice the awkward moments on purpose. Give feedback, ask clarifying question in a meeting, and have conversations that are easier to avoid. Rehearse it like you would rehearse anything else worth getting good at.
• Name the difference between staying connected and being present. A shared Slack channel has real value. However, it is not a substitute for the trust that gets built in a real conversation, and teams need to hear that distinction out loud.
• Let people sit in the discomfort. The instinct to let an easier channel absorb a hard conversation is real. Resist it. That discomfort is where the skill gets built, for a sixteen-year-old and a new hire alike.

The goal isn’t zero screens, at home or at work. The goal is making sure people still know how to look someone in the eye, pick up the phone, and hold a real conversation when it matters. That’s not something anyone picks up by accident anymore. It has to be taught, and it pays off long after the kid becomes a colleague. Ultimately, closing the workforce communication skills gap will benefit current and future generations.

Simone Knego is the USA Today bestselling author of REAL Confidence and co-host of Her Unshakeable Confidence. She speaks internationally on turning potential into performance through the REAL Method®.

The post The Skill We Stopped Teaching, and Why It’s Showing Up in Your Workforce appeared first on Simone Knego.

What does it actually mean to “adult”? 

In this candid mother-daughter episode of Her Unshakeable Confidence, Simone and Olivia Knego swap adulting horror stories and hard-won lessons, from laundry mishaps and grocery store avoidance to the real cost of chasing the cheapest option. They dig into the gap between theoretical and practical knowledge, and land on a bigger truth: nobody has it figured out, and certainty is a myth. 

Confidence in adulthood isn’t about knowing everything; it’s about learning to take things one step at a time.

Actionable Takeaways

Do life’s practical tasks often (laundry, cooking) so they stay manageable instead of overwhelming.
Weigh cost versus value, not just price, when making decisions.
Choose direct routes and simpler paths when the time saved outweighs the money saved.
Accept that theoretical knowledge only becomes useful once you practice it yourself.
Let go of the need for certainty. Nobody truly knows what they’re doing.
Take adulting one step at a time instead of trying to master it all at once.

Chapters

00:01 – Adjusting to the Nine-to-Five Grind
02:05 – Weekends: Structure vs. Freedom
04:04 – Cooking, Grocery Shopping, and Learning to Adult
04:55 – The Upsides of Independence
06:54 – Laundry Struggles and Type A Habits
08:59 – College Prep and Practical Life Skills
10:30 – What School Never Taught Us
12:26 – Cost vs. Value: Time, Money, and Choices
14:38 – Direct Flights and the Value of Time
16:41 – Embracing Uncertainty and Taking It One Step at a Time

Connect with Us

Don’t forget to subscribe to Her Unshakeable Confidence for more empowering stories and actionable insights. Leave us a review, share your favorite moments, and tag us on social media!

Take our new QUIZ and discover what’s really holding you back and how to break free.

Get Free AUDIOBOOK

Order Simone’s New Book 

REAL Confidence A Simple Guide to Go from Unsure to Unshakeable

Order Simone’s The Extraordinary UnOrdinary You Book

Connect with Simone Knego:

• Instagram: @simoneknego
• Facebook: @speakersimoneknego
• LinkedIn: simoneknego
• Website: www.simoneknego.com
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• Instagram: @oliviaknego
• LinkedIn: oliviaknego

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I watched the reaction to the World Cup final halftime show roll in as it happened. Madonna, Shakira, BTS, Justin Bieber, Burna Boy, even Kermit and Miss Piggy showed up for the first-ever halftime show at a FIFA World Cup final. Within minutes people online were tearing it apart.

One prominent football writer called the whole idea an anti-football abomination. A former England striker went viral for saying the best part of the show was when it finally ended. British papers piled on too, calling it glib and unsubtle, while an American outlet described it as blandly, sappily crowd-pleasing.

I don’t have strong feelings about the show itself, honestly. What caught my attention was the speed of it. The half-time break reportedly ran to 27 minutes instead of the planned 20. Before the players had jogged back onto the field, a huge chunk of the internet had already made up its mind. It was a disaster. FIFA had ruined the tradition. America had ruined the tradition. All of that got decided in less time than it takes to watch the halftime show itself.

We Do the Exact Same Thing With People

I bring this up because it’s such a clean example of something I see wreck people’s confidence at work all the time. It’s how fast we judge each other and how much we worry about being judged in return.

Think about how quickly you size someone up when you first meet them. Their handshake, their outfit, whether they seem nervous. You’ve usually built a whole story about them before they’ve said more than a few sentences. You almost never go back to check if that story held up.

I see this play out constantly with the leaders I work with. Someone pitches an idea and stumbles over a word. The room quietly writes her off as not ready for the promotion. A new hire asks a question that sounds obvious, and the team decides he’s not sharp enough. A leader tries something bold and it doesn’t land perfectly the first time. The story that sticks isn’t that she tried something new. It’s that it didn’t work.

One writer covering the halftime show backlash described it well. Fans show up with an unspoken agreement about how things are supposed to go. The moment something breaks that agreement, they punish it before they’ve fully processed what actually happened. I think that’s most judgment in a sentence. We carry expectations we never say out loud, and then we get frustrated when reality doesn’t match them.

What Got Crowded Out

Here’s what didn’t dominate the global conversation the way the runtime complaints did. Buried in that same 27-minute show was a group of kids from one of the poorest neighborhoods in Kampala, Uganda. They shared a stage with Shakira and Burna Boy in front of one of the largest television audiences in the world. It got real coverage, especially across Ugandan and African outlets, but it never came close to matching the reach of the “FIFA ruined the tradition” takes that spread everywhere else.

They’re known as the Ghetto Kids, originally the Triplets Ghetto Kids, a dance troupe made up of children and teenagers from the Katwe slum, one of Kampala’s poorest neighborhoods. Their choreography first drew international attention back in 2014, and it kept building from there. Shakira came across a clip of them dancing to one of her own songs and personally invited them to join her and Burna Boy on the World Cup stage. That made them the first East African act to ever perform at a FIFA World Cup Final halftime show.

For a group of kids who started out filming dance videos in the street, that’s not a footnote. They posted afterward that dreams really do come true and that performing with Shakira was something they’d carry with them for the rest of their lives. Back home, the moment landed as something much bigger than entertainment. It was proof that talent from Katwe could reach the same stage as Madonna and BTS.

Most of the halftime show takedowns never mentioned it. The critics reviewing runtime and production value weren’t wrong that the show ran long or that it disrupted the rhythm of the match. But they were reviewing the show as a spectacle, not as a moment in a dozen different people’s lives. The loudest, fastest opinions rarely make room for both.

That’s the part of quick judgment that costs the most.

The criticism isn’t necessarily unfair. It’s incomplete. You can hold two things at once, that the production choices were questionable and that a group of kids from Katwe just had the biggest night of their lives on the same stage. Most of the loudest reactions online only had room for one of those.

What Confident People Do Differently

This is part of why Respect Yourself is the first pillar in the REAL Method®, the framework I built around what actually separates people who keep moving forward from people who stay stuck. Self-respect won’t stop people from criticizing you. What it changes is how much power that criticism has over you once it shows up.

The performers at MetLife Stadium had to know a chunk of that audience would hate the show before the first note played. Some of the sharpest sports and entertainment writers in the world were sitting in that stadium waiting to weigh in, and they weren’t going to be gentle about it. The performers went out and did it anyway.

I don’t think that’s thick skin, exactly. I think it’s a decision, and it’s the same one I ask leaders to make when we work on confidence together: accept that anything you do in public is going to draw some judgment, and let that be fine. Shakira and BTS didn’t get a do-over. The show happened once, imperfectly, in front of hundreds of millions of people. Now it’s part of World Cup history regardless of what the reviews said.

The people who move fastest toward what they want usually aren’t avoiding criticism better than everyone else. They’ve just stopped treating fast judgment as meaningful information. Someone forming a complete opinion in ten seconds is usually telling you more about themselves than about you.

Try Asking a Different Question

Next time you catch yourself deciding something about a person, a decision, or a performance in the first few seconds, slow down for a second. Ask what you’d think if you’d seen the whole story instead of the highlight reel. Ask what it cost that person to try in the first place. In addition, ask whether your reaction is really about them or about your own expectations getting disrupted.

Most of us are going to have a public halftime show moment eventually, a bold attempt that doesn’t land the same way for everyone watching. Confidence doesn’t mean you avoid those moments. It means you make them anyway, and you try to give other people the same grace you’d want when it’s your turn to be judged in real time.

The post Why We Judge People So Quickly (And How to Stop) appeared first on Simone Knego.

The Photo

In September 2007, a twenty year old Lionel Messi took part in a charity calendar shoot at Camp Nou for UNICEF. He was already talented, already someone Barcelona was building around. But he was still years from becoming the player the world would eventually call the greatest of all time.

A local family had won a raffle for a photo with a Barça player. Their six month old son ended up in Messi’s arms, then in a plastic tub of water while Messi helped bathe him.

The baby’s name was Lamine Yamal.

The photographer, Joan Monfort, has talked about how the shoot actually went. Messi, he said, is introverted and shy. He walked out of one locker room straight into another one with a plastic tub full of water and a baby in it, and he didn’t know how to hold him at first.

There was nothing polished about it. No one in that room, including Messi, was thinking about legacy. A young athlete was doing an awkward, slightly uncomfortable favor for a charity raffle winner, the way you say yes to something small and unglamorous because it’s the right thing to do that day.

Nineteen Years Later

This year, Yamal was nineteen and playing for Spain in the World Cup final. Messi was thirty nine and playing for Argentina, in what a lot of people were calling his last World Cup, even though he never confirmed that himself.

He’s said before that he’s taking things day by day, no promises about the future. Whether that match really was his last time on this stage, only he knows. Maybe not even he had decided.

That uncertainty is what makes the story interesting to me, more than the ending does.

If Messi had known for certain it was his last World Cup, showing up fully would have been the easy part. You know it’s the finale, so you empty the tank. What’s harder is playing that way when you don’t know.

You have to decide to show up like it matters without any guarantee anyone will ever call this the big one. That’s what he did back in 2007 too, in a locker room with a baby he’d never met, for a charity calendar nobody expected to matter in twenty years.

The Final

Spain won 1-0 in extra time. Ferran Torres scored the winner off a Nico Williams assist, and Argentina played the closing stretch down a man after a red card. It’s Spain’s second World Cup title since 2010. Yamal, the baby from that 2007 photo, is a World Cup champion at nineteen.

After the final whistle, the cameras found Messi sitting alone on the field, taking it in. Everyone will read that image and decide what it means. Some will call it the end of his World Cup career. Others will call it the end of his time in an Argentina shirt at all, which is not the same ending.

The truth is nobody watching knows which one it was. Maybe he doesn’t fully know yet either.

We do this constantly, not just with athletes. We watch someone’s face in a hard moment and write the story for them. But the meaning of a moment like that isn’t something you can read off a person’s expression from the stands or a television screen. It’s built later, in private, by the person who lived it.

What This Means at Work

I think about this a lot when I talk to leaders about confidence, because most of us aren’t waiting for a World Cup final. We’re waiting for permission. We hold back until we’re sure something is going to count before we give it everything. The big presentation. The promotion decision. The interview.

In the meantime, a hundred smaller rooms go by unnoticed. The one on one where an employee first admits they’re struggling. The onboarding conversation with a new hire who’s terrified and hiding it. The five minutes you spend actually listening to someone on your team instead of rushing to the next meeting.

None of those rooms come with a sign that says this is the one that matters. You don’t find out until years later, if you find out at all.

Confidence at work doesn’t get built in the highlight reel moments. The real work happens in the plastic tub moments, the awkward and unscripted ones, when you show up fully anyway because you can’t afford to wait for proof that this is the moment worth showing up for.

Nobody in that locker room in 2007 knew what they were building. Not the photographer, not Messi, not the mother who brought her baby to a raffle prize photo shoot. None of them had any idea what the future held.

Nineteen years later, that baby lifted a World Cup trophy. Messi sat alone on that same field afterward, and we have no idea what was going through his mind. Maybe the photo crossed it. Maybe it didn’t. Either way, back in 2007, nobody in that room could have guessed where this would end up.

You may not know either. Not today, not in the meeting that feels small, not in the conversation you almost skip. Show up like it’s the one that matters. One day, looking back, it might be.

Frequently Asked Questions

The post What a Viral World Cup Photo Teaches Us About Confidence appeared first on Simone Knego.

Have you ever wondered why making friends feels so much harder as an adult?

In this episode of Her Unshakeable Confidence, Simone and Olivia Knego explore the challenges of building meaningful relationships through different seasons of life. From navigating friendships after college to embracing change, they share why creating your village takes intention, why casual friendships matter, and how stepping outside your comfort zone can lead to lifelong connections.

This conversation is a reminder that the relationships you invest in today can shape your confidence, support, and growth for years to come.

Actionable Takeaways

• Invest in relationships before you need them—your village is built over time.
• Don’t wait for others to make the first move; put yourself out there.
• Embrace casual friendships alongside your deepest connections.
• Don’t let fear stop you from trying new experiences or meeting new people.
• Build a life you enjoy independently instead of waiting on others.
• Welcome change as an opportunity for growth rather than something to fear.

Chapters

00:00 – Why Adult Friendships Feel Different

02:29 – Finding Your People in Every Season of Life

04:51 – Building Your Village Before You Need It

07:12 – Friendships Beyond Age and Shared Backgrounds

09:29 – Casual Friendships vs. Deep Connections

14:12 – Independence and Doing Things on Your Own

16:33 – Growing Up, Change, and Adult Relationships

20:30 – Nobody Has It All Figured Out

25:14 – Put Yourself Out There and Keep an Open Mind

27:20 – Confidence Tip: Don’t Let Fear Hold You Back

Connect with Us

Don’t forget to subscribe to Her Unshakeable Confidence for more empowering stories and actionable insights. Leave us a review, share your favorite moments, and tag us on social media!

Take our new QUIZ and discover what’s really holding you back and how to break free.

Get Free AUDIOBOOK

Order Simone’s New Book 

REAL Confidence A Simple Guide to Go from Unsure to Unshakeable

Order Simone’s The Extraordinary UnOrdinary You Book

Connect with Simone Knego:

• Instagram: @simoneknego
• Facebook: @speakersimoneknego
• LinkedIn: simoneknego
• Website: www.simoneknego.com
• Book a free call with Simone

Connect with Olivia Knego:

• Instagram: @oliviaknego
• LinkedIn: oliviaknego

Looking for more?

Visit Our Etsy Shop: theunshakeablestudio

Check out our inspirational mugs, shirts, and more at The Unshakeable Studio. These items are filled with gratitude and designed to inspire personal transformation in one’s life.

Listen to Episode on:

The post Why Making Real Friends Becomes a Challenge As We Age appeared first on Simone Knego.

My youngest daughter Mili leaves for American University in a few weeks. It’s a major moment for our family as we prepare to embrace change together.

She’ll be studying in Washington, D.C., a few miles from her brand new nephew. She’s already declared herself the favorite aunt.

She’s close enough to actually show up for weekends and evenings, she’s also close enough in age to still know what’s cool, which she will absolutely remind everyone is the real qualification.

I love that logic. In fact, this transition is one more opportunity to embrace change as a family unit.

This is a brand new season for me. I will be watching my last child go off to college. A time I never could have pictured after raising six kids.

And almost in the same breath, I’ve become a grandmother.

Two Seasons

Two seasons that are supposed to happen years apart. Showing up at my house in the same summer.

For so many parents, a child going off to college is a hard transition. We spend years juggling so many things for so many people. When there’s suddenly one less thing to juggle, it can feel very empty. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to go? One chapter closes, you grieve it a little, and then the next one opens. That’s the story we’re told about change. Endings first, beginnings after.

I remember laying in my oldest son’s bed the night he left for college, crying into his pillow. With each child after that, it got a little easier, because I could see the incredible opportunities waiting for them on the other side. Sad and nervous every time. But it was never really about me.

Mili is sad, nervous, and very excited, all in the same breath. She’s gone to the same school since preschool so this is a big change for her. She’s thrilled that D.C. puts her close enough to spend weekends and evenings with her brother, sister-in-law and nephew instead of only seeing them on holidays.

I am sad, nervous, and very excited for her too. I am also so incredibly proud of everything she has already accomplished. This new season will bring a lot of change. She gets to try new things, meet new people, and figure out what she actually wants for her life. It’s a great time to embrace change and see where it leads.

I think we get taught to brace for change instead of embrace it. We treat every new season like a threat to the one we’re currently standing in, like there’s only room for one identity at a time. Still, I am determined that our family chooses to embrace change and approach it with open hearts.

Mother of six. Grandmother. Wife of thirty plus years. Founder growing her business.

I used to think I needed to tidy those up into some kind of order. Finish one before starting the next.

Turns out real life works differently. So does confidence.

Real confidence means trusting yourself enough to hold more than one thing at a time, without needing any of them to get smaller to make room.

Mili doesn’t have to stop being my youngest favorite daughter to become an aunt. I don’t have to stop being her mom to become someone’s grandmother.

The seasons aren’t taking turns. They’re overlapping, on purpose, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

So here’s what I keep coming back to as I help her pack for college with a nursery still fresh in my mind. For me, it’s important to embrace change even when it feels overwhelming.

The season you’re standing in right now, whatever it is, probably didn’t ask your permission and probably doesn’t care if you feel ready. You can spend it waiting for things to slow down and make sense. Or you can embrace it exactly as messy and full as it is.

If there’s a season showing up in your life before you feel ready for it, here’s the invitation. Stop waiting for it to make sense first. Pick one thing about it you can lean into today, even a small one, and start there.

My daughter Olivia and I got into this exact kind of family shift on the podcast recently, what it looks like to hold onto each other while everyone’s roles keep changing. If this hit home for you, you can listen to that conversation on the Her Unshakeable Confidence podcast.

The post Embrace the Season appeared first on Simone Knego.

Have you ever felt like you had to figure everything out on your own?

In this heartfelt episode of Her Unshakeable Confidence, Simone and Olivia reconnect while sharing exciting family updates, including Simone becoming a grandmother. Through conversations about parenting, support systems, postpartum struggles, and advocating for yourself, they explore how confidence grows when we ask for help, speak up, and trust ourselves.

This episode is a reminder that whether you’re raising children, navigating health challenges, or simply moving through life, you deserve to be heard and supported.

Actionable Takeaways

Build a strong community and allow yourself to lean on others for support.

Trust that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to parenting or life.

Advocate for yourself when something feels wrong.

Keep asking questions and seeking answers if you feel unheard.

Teach confidence by encouraging independence and self-advocacy.

Focus on impressing yourself rather than worrying about what others think.

Chapters

00:00 – Family Updates and Becoming Grandma “Mona”

02:20 – Learning About Parenthood and New Beginnings

04:43 – Parenting Without a Handbook

07:10 – Why Community Matters

09:34 – Postpartum Support and Mental Health Conversations

13:02 – Women’s Health and Self-Advocacy

16:00 – Raising Confident and Independent Kids

18:05 – Watching Your Children Grow

18:50 – Confidence Tips: Impress Yourself First

Connect with Us

Don’t forget to subscribe to Her Unshakeable Confidence for more empowering stories and actionable insights. Leave us a review, share your favorite moments, and tag us on social media!

Take our new QUIZ and discover what’s really holding you back and how to break free.

Get Free AUDIOBOOK

Order Simone’s New Book 

REAL Confidence A Simple Guide to Go from Unsure to Unshakeable

Order Simone’s The Extraordinary UnOrdinary You Book

Connect with Simone Knego:

• Instagram: @simoneknego
• Facebook: @speakersimoneknego
• LinkedIn: simoneknego
• Website: www.simoneknego.com
• Book a free call with Simone

Connect with Olivia Knego:

• Instagram: @oliviaknego
• LinkedIn: oliviaknego

Looking for more?

Visit Our Etsy Shop: theunshakeablestudio

Check out our inspirational mugs, shirts, and more at The Unshakeable Studio. These items are filled with gratitude and designed to inspire personal transformation in one’s life.

Listen to Episode on:

The post Unleash Your Family’s Power: Parenthood and Finding Your Voice! appeared first on Simone Knego.

If you’ve searched “how to feel more confident at work” or “how to stop feeling like a fraud” lately, you’re not alone. You’re part of a very large, very current wave.

Right now, confidence is having a rough year. Not just personal confidence. All of it. CEO confidence dropped in the first quarter of 2026 as tariff and geopolitical uncertainty stalled decisions. Consumer confidence took a hit too, with the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index falling to its lowest reading since December. And inside organizations, only 58% of executives say they’re confident in how their company manages change, according to Perceptyx research.

When the people at the top feel shaky, that feeling doesn’t stay at the top. It trickles into every meeting, every performance review, every “do I actually belong here” moment your team is quietly having at their desks.

Why does workplace confidence feel lower right now?

Confidence at work is dropping for three overlapping reasons: economic uncertainty, organizational change fatigue, and a newer factor, AI reshaping what counts as valuable work. Each one on its own would be enough to shake people’s confidence. Together, they’re doing real damage to how capable people feel at their jobs.

The new twist: AI is changing what imposter syndrome looks like

Imposter syndrome used to show up at predictable career milestones. A first job. A promotion. A big career pivot. The advice was always the same: fake it until your confidence catches up with your experience.

That advice is running into a problem. A growing number of experienced professionals are describing something workplace researchers are now calling AI driven imposter syndrome. These people didn’t suddenly get less capable. The rules for what counts as valuable work are shifting faster than anyone can comfortably keep up with, and their confidence is taking the hit for it. That’s a genuinely different problem than “I’m new here and I don’t know what I’m doing yet,” and it needs a different kind of answer.

What percentage of people experience imposter syndrome?

Roughly 70% of people experience imposter syndrome at some point in their careers, according to research that’s been replicated across multiple populations since it was first identified by psychologists Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Imes. Among female executives specifically, KPMG found the number climbs to 75%.

Nearly half, 45%, of workers say they’ve avoided a promotion, a new role, or a stretch opportunity specifically because of imposter syndrome. That’s a talent pipeline problem dressed up as a soft skills problem. Every leader who quietly opts out of the next opportunity because they don’t feel ready is a leader your organization doesn’t get to develop.

And one more data point that I think matters more than people realize: research suggests that faking confidence, even when it feels hollow at first, can lead to a real and lasting increase in self belief over time. Confidence isn’t only built by feeling ready before you act. Sometimes it’s built by acting, and letting the feeling catch up.

Why affirmations alone won’t fix workplace confidence

A lot of workplace advice on confidence stops at “just believe in yourself” or “list your wins.” Those things help, but they’re not the whole answer, and treating them like the whole answer is part of why so many capable people still feel stuck.

Confidence that actually holds up under pressure is a practice, built the same way strength is built, through repetition, through evidence, and through a willingness to fail publicly and survive it.

This is where I always come back to what I call the REAL Method®. Real, lasting confidence comes down to four things:

Respect yourself. Not in a bumper sticker way. In the specific, daily way of not talking to yourself like you’d never talk to someone you respect.

Embrace your failures. Not as evidence you don’t belong, but as the actual raw material confidence is made from. You can’t build evidence of resilience without something to be resilient about. I’ve written more about redefining failure as a growth tool here.

Ask yourself what you want. So much workplace anxiety comes from chasing goals that were never actually yours. Confidence gets a lot easier to access when you’re aiming at something you actually chose.

Live without limits. Meaning the limits you’ve quietly accepted as permanent are usually more negotiable than they feel at 11pm on a Sunday.

What this means for the people leading teams right now

If you’re in HR, L&D, or leading a team through this stretch, here’s the practical takeaway. Your people aren’t imagining the uncertainty. It’s real, it’s economic, it’s organizational, and now it’s technological too. Telling them to “just be confident” without acknowledging that context will land flat.

What actually helps is building environments where people can take a visible risk, be wrong, and stay in the room. Psychological safety isn’t a nice to have this year. It’s the thing standing between a team that freezes under pressure and one that adapts.

Confidence, at the individual and the organizational level, isn’t about having zero doubt. It’s about knowing what to do with the doubt when it shows up. That’s a skill. It can be taught, practiced, and rebuilt, even in a year that’s given everyone plenty of reasons to lose it.

Frequently asked questions

What is causing low confidence at work right now? A mix of economic uncertainty, organizational change fatigue, and AI reshaping how work is evaluated. Leaders at every level, including CEOs, report lower confidence heading into 2026 than in prior years.

Is imposter syndrome the same as anxiety? Not exactly. Imposter syndrome is a psychological pattern, not a diagnosable condition, but it’s strongly associated with anxiety, burnout, and low self esteem, and the two often show up together.

Can confidence actually be rebuilt, or is it fixed? It can be rebuilt. Confidence works more like a skill or a muscle than a fixed trait. Practices like the REAL Method®, evidence based reflection, and psychological safety at the team level all measurably help.

Simone Knego is an international keynote speaker, USA Today bestselling author of REAL Confidence: A Simple Guide to Go from Unsure to Unshakeable, two time TEDx speaker, and host of the Her Unshakeable Confidence podcast. She helps HR leaders and organizations build the kind of workplace confidence that holds up under real pressure, not just the kind that looks good on a slide.

The post Why Confidence Feels Harder to Find Right Now (and What Actually Builds It Back) appeared first on Simone Knego.

Have you ever wondered what real confidence actually looks like? 

In this special episode of Her Unshakeable Confidence, Simone and Olivia Knego revisit a heartfelt conversation originally recorded before the release of Simone’s book, REAL Confidence: A Simple Guide to Go From Unsure to Unshakeable, which is now available. Together, they unpack the REAL Method while exploring self-respect, failure, self-worth, relationships, and the journey from seeking external validation to finding confidence within. 

Through honest stories, humor, and vulnerability, they share a reminder that confidence is not about perfection. It is about embracing who you are and changing the way you see yourself.

Actionable Takeaways

Respect yourself by setting boundaries and ending self-sabotaging behaviors.
Reframe failure as learning instead of proof that you are not enough.
Pay attention to the stories you tell yourself and challenge negative thoughts.
Ask yourself what you truly want instead of constantly putting others first.
Stop seeking external validation and begin building confidence from within.
Focus on showing up authentically rather than performing confidence.
Remember that confidence is not changing who you are. It is changing how you see yourself.

Chapters

00:00 – Introducing the REAL Method
02:18 – Respect Yourself and Stop Self-Sabotage
08:15 – Self-Talk and Changing the Story You Tell Yourself
14:12 – Control–Alt–Delete: Reframing Negative Thoughts
16:34 – Why Failure Is a Lesson, Not an Ending
26:31 – Asking Yourself What You Really Want
32:12 – Living Without Limits and Dropping the “Just”
35:42 – Performing Confidence vs Living It
42:03 – Healing Through Vulnerability and Sharing Your Story
46:13 – What Confidence Truly Means

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The post REAL Confidence: A Candid Conversation With My Daughter appeared first on Simone Knego.