Welcome to “Chatting Confidence”, a three part series with Broadway performer, Disney Princess, and fierce goddess, Courtney Reed. Courtney has become one of my leading role models and has taught me so much about confidence purely through her example.

New to this series?! Catch up on Part 1 & Part 2 first! :)

It's super special this week to have Courtney on the blog again because she is currently FFB's BROADWAY HERO! Also, it's your last two days to snag Courtney Swag at FFB Apparel! I'd rep this girl all day, every day.. she's the real deal you guys.

Basically for this feature series, we got on the phone for an hour when I was in London and only talked about confidence. here’s what happened…Jane: When do you feel most confident?

Courtney: This is gonna sound so cheesy, but I probably feel most confident when I’m hanging out not doing anything. Just chilling with my boyfriend. He has helped me grow over these past, almost three years.. he’s a very confident person and definitely not cocky in any way but super confident which inspires me. I’m just realizing, wow I surround myself with confident people! I feel so confident with him because he genuinely 100% fully loves me for me and any of my flaws.

Jane: That’s the best feeling!

Courtney: That’a a part of true love. I hate to say that because I feel like women shouldn’t need a man to feel confident. They definitely don’t need a man to feel confident. I just keep thinking that probably some of the times when I’ve felt most confident is because he looks at me like “you’re the bomb” and it just reinforces “Oh wait! I’m the bomb!”

Jane: That’s awesome. I’m all about the whole idea of being on certain energy frequencies and when you’re on that energy frequency, you’re attracting similar energy. And so I think if it wasn’t with your boyfriend, it would be with a best friend or with someone you work with or it would be with a mentor. If you’re resonating at a certain positive frequency feeling amazing and confident, it’s just going to be reflected to you in your closest relationship. Which I think is the same idea with energy and the whole puzzle behind going into an audition room and not feeling confident; you’re just going to mirror that back at yourself- that negative frequency.

Courtney: 100%

Jane: If you go in feeling like you’re putting out good energy, it’s just going to come back to you. You could probably mirror that confidence and positive energy back to yourself in your work or in something that you’re passionate about if you didn’t have a close relationship…for people who aren’t in a relationship. You can get that sort of confidence and validation in other ways because you’re setting the bar and the tone for what’s coming back at you in any situation or person.

Courtney: 100%. I’m all about the energy. I’m all about it!

Jane: Oh my gosh, I just know when my energy is at a certain level. Crazy stuff happens! Serendipitous crazy stuff. I literally have to pinch myself because I’m like “oh my gosh.” I have to tell you this story…Ashley Yeater and I teamed up for an event on Valentines Day in London and she taught this fun barre class and we kept saying “ok, we hope at least like, five people come.” We rallied the troops, told every being that we knew to come to this class and we had 30 people come! It was amazing. I was living on cloud nine and it was so fun and everyone was so positive and excited and happy to be there and energy was just good. After the class, there was a group of six of us going to eat and we went into this coffee shop and couldn’t find seating. We waited 20 minutes and couldn’t sit down so we finally left. We went to another place and ended up splitting up and three of us went to this spot, 26 Grains. There were kind of communal tables and so the three of us sat down next to a girl who was just minding her business, eating her “porridge” and sipping her tea. We sat down and my new friend Antony was like, “tell me more about your blog. I haven’t really gotten to see it yet.” I responded, “Yeah! It’s fitness and health and Broadway. It fuses it all together.” And this girl— this has never happened and I’m in London— This girl turns and she says “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I’ve been reading your blog for like, a year and I’m obsessed with Fit For Broadway.”

Courtney: Oh my god, absolutely not! Absolutely not! Are you kidding me!? I’m freaking out.

Jane: Literally! I was freaking out! I couldn’t even handle it. I’m telling you, when your energy is up, it attracts crazy things..

Courtney: Craziness.

Jane: Isn’t that insane?

Courtney: Oh, it’s so good! It’s the bomb.

Jane: It’s the same too with bad energy.. you know when you’re not feeling good, you just feel like you’re repelling everything.

Courtney: Fully. Since I’ve gotten older and as I get older, I realize I can only surround myself with good people and good energy. You know what I mean?

Jane: Yes!

Courtney: You just start to weed out all the bad energy that’s getting into your life that you somehow fully accepted to be there that you finally just have to say, “No.” There’s no need!

Jane: No! No need.

Courtney: There’s only need to have positive energy coming through because you know you’re about to get into a negative energy at some point, regardless of anybody surrounding you, so why don’t you just feed into the positive!?

Jane: Oh my gosh! It’s the biggest thing! Even if you already have inner confidence, you build it up with people around you. That’s your secret!

Courtney: Oh my gosh that’s my secret!

Jane: Your secret is out! How to become fierce by Courtney Reed!

Courtney: All the people I’m surrounded with build my confidence like crazy!

Jane: That’s so good!

Courtney: They inspire me. I think a lot of it has to do with getting older. Finding yourself. You start to take risks and own it and never apologize for anything. I had a musical theatre teacher tell me, “You’re apologizing when you’re performing. You just performed that number and you’re apologizing for being fierce.” He didn’t say “for being fierce” but he was like, “you are afraid that people are going to think that you think that you’re amazing. But that’s what comes from being a performer.” You have to believe that you’re amazing, right? I think that’s so tough because people don’t want to be perceive that way. Don’t want to be perceived as if they’re a diva or they think they’re better than somebody else. He told me, “You shouldn’t think that the way that you look would possibly make people perceive that about you. But you can’t apologize for the way that you look.” He was calling me out! What!?

Jane: I had a professor who I remember saying something like, “What we do as performers.. we ask people to pay money to watch us. You need to own that! You’re asking someone to pay to come look at you and watch you do what you’re doing.” That’s why you have to just own it and be like “you’re gonna get your money’s worth!”

Courtney: Oh my gosh, full out! It’s true though. Even though, your persona, not YOUR persona, but like, people in general’s persona on instagram.. it shows a part of you. You shouldn’t be apologetic about it. You should be like “look at the fierce designs that I just made on my new shirts.” You know what I mean? One should never apologize for the things they’re putting out there.

Interested in seeing another series similar to this one? Or have a topic in mind for another one of your fav Broadway performers? Click the comment button at the top of this post to let me know! :)