Hey, fellow confidence Crusaders! I’m so excited to share this episode because I got to reconnect with my longtime friend and ACI-certified confidence coach, Annet van Duinen. We talked about her incredible transformation—and wow, the glow is real.

When we first met, she was quiet, thoughtful, and introverted. Today? She’s fully embraced her true self, radiating confidence in a way that’s both wild and sensitive—her term, wild sensitive.

Annette’s journey started with her ACI confidence training, which flipped her perspective on how she sees herself. By exploring her traits as both a highly sensitive person (HSP) and a high sensation seeker (HSS), she discovered a unique superpower: she can process deeply and take bold action.

It’s not just about personality—it’s about harnessing who you truly are to live fully, make courageous choices, and show up authentically.

We laughed, we got real, and we shared stories about the tough stuff: leaving a marriage, moving across the globe, and embracing traits society often mislabels as “too much” or “wrong.”

Annette’s story proves that understanding yourself—and giving yourself permission to be both sensitive and adventurous—is one of the most powerful confidence hacks out there. And the best part? She’s now helping others discover their own wild sensitive strengths and unlock the confidence they didn’t even know they had.

Key Takeaways:

• What happens when a highly sensitive person meets their wild side.
• Why embracing your quirks can unlock unexpected confidence.
• The hidden strength in traits most people overlook.
• How embracing yourself changes the way you move through the world.
• The surprising way adventure and sensitivity can work together.

Annet van Duinen has over ten years of experience in personal and professional coaching, and work that centers on helping people understand their nervous system and learn to work with their sensitivity rather than against it. Feeling a kinship with Annet? You can learn more about her and her work at annetvanduinen.com.

If I had something on my face, like smeared makeup, or a bit of schmutz on my glasses, would you tell me? Or would you awkwardly smile, hope someone else says something, and let me walk around all day wondering why nobody said a word?

I mean, it’s such a weird social code, right? We freeze, we hem and haw, we sugarcoat or do nothing at all. And the wild part is we’re the same people who get frustrated when no one tells us when we look off!

We just talked in an earlier episode about getting criticism— how personal it feels, and how fast our brains spin when someone points something out. So you’d think giving feedback would be easier, right? But nope. Somehow, knowing how much it can hurt makes us even more hesitant to give it.

Staying silent doesn’t protect anyone though. It undermines trust, confidence and sometimes even opportunities.

Confidence isn’t just about how you take feedback—it’s about having the guts to give it too. And I’m not talking about delivering it like a drill sergeant, but honest, kind, human-to-human honesty. Like: “Hey, just a heads up—your sunscreen isn’t blended well,” or “Your comment in that meeting might have come off differently than you intended.” It’s small, it’s real, and yes, it’s awkward—but that’s the point.

Confidence lives in those moments where you choose courage over comfort. Being willing to say what needs to be said builds trust, strengthens relationships, and, honestly, it’s contagious. People notice when someone can give feedback without ego or judgment—and they respect it.

Consider this episode your BFF permission slip: it’s okay to speak up. Your honesty could be the thing that saves someone’s day—or their career.

Let me just say this upfront—if you’ve ever side-eyed anything that sounds even a little “mindset-y,” you’re in good company. I went into this conversation with executive coach and neurolinguistic programming (NLP) practitioner Curtis McCollum curious… but not fully sold. NLP, hypnotherapy, mental emotional release—it’s a lot of language. What pulled me in though, wasn’t the terminology. It was what he was actually getting at underneath it.

And that’s that a lot of what’s driving your confidence—or quietly messing with it—isn’t happening in the moment. It’s old. It’s patterned. Running without your permission and how the insta-advice to “just think differently” doesn’t deliver the fix people want it to.

What I like about this conversation is that we don’t stay in theory. We talk about what it actually looks like in real time—when something hits, when you feel that surge, when your brain starts telling a very convincing story—and how to respond without either stuffing it down or spiraling out.

Because our brains really do run these stories on repeat. Some are valid and some are wildly outdated and unless we know how to catch them—and interrupt them—we’ll keep having the same reactions, the same emotional spikes, the same outcomes. Different day, same loop.

And yes, we address the “woo” factor. Because parts of this do sound out there—until you realize how much of your behavior is being driven by things you didn’t consciously choose in the first place. At that point, it’s less about belief and more about whether you’re willing to take a closer look at what’s been running things.

This is why you’ll want to listen:

• A sharper take on “mindset” that doesn’t depend on forcing better thoughts
• Why certain reactions feel instant and why they’re so stubborn to change
• A small language shift that quietly changes how you relate to your own thoughts
• What actually happens when you stop avoiding uncomfortable emotions
• How to start spotting the patterns that have been making decisions for you

Curtis McCullom is a specialist in Subconscious Leadership Alignment, helping leaders identify and release the internal friction that stalls execution. Certified in MER® (Mental and Emotional Release) and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), Curtis uses a science-based approach to shift how leaders think, feel, and lead. Learn more about Curtis and his work at bespokehumanpotentialcoaching.com.