Meet Sheila Kennedy

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sheila Kennedy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sheila , we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

Confidence and self-esteem are two different things, and I am so glad that the question included both. In 2010, after my divorce from a dysfunctional and unhealthy marriage was final, I began a journey of discovering what confidence and self-esteem were in relation to my life. I had no idea that there was a difference between the two and have spent the last fourteen years or so researching, sharing, and teaching how they impact our lives and how to improve levels of both.

After my divorce, my belief in myself was at an all-time low. I had been conditioned from an early age to perform for people’s approval and to rarely show emotion, whether it was positive or negative. I outline some of those occasions in a book I wrote that resulted from a healing journey of self-discovery. What I did learn in my research is that confidence is rooted in the Latin word, confidere, which means to trust. Confidence is trusting that you are fully supported. You are given exactly what you need in each moment. That idea seems flawed because most of us feel very unsupported in certain moments of our life. That is where trust comes in. Support doesn’t always look like we want it to. But the fact that we are sharing this moment together means that being supported in every moment is a true statement.

So, when a person develops a crisis of confidence, that looks like a lack of trust that they will be supported. They either don’t trust that they can make healthy and good decisions to support themselves, or the Universe, God, or Source, is not supporting them either. When that lack of confidence pops up, it is important to work on trust. Building trust in yourself and the reality that supports you is vital for vulnerability and risk taking.

Why then, if that is corrected, are people still finding themselves with a lack of self-esteem? Here is the crux of it: If confidence is trusting that you are supported, then self-esteem is the belief that you are worthy of the support. If a person is experiencing a worthiness issue, then they have a self-esteem problem, which is where they should focus their healing and self-discovery. They can believe all day long that they are supported, but if they do not believe that they are worthy of support, they fail to see what support can even look like.

Following my divorce, I had issues with both, and created a framework, called POWER, in which to develop confidence and self-esteem. I outlined POWER in a short little book called, You Had It All Along, which has helped thousands of people regain their trust and belief in their worthiness. Are there moments when I have a crisis of confidence? Of course. The true measure of confidence isn’t that fear, or distrust show up. The true measure is how long you let them stay. Fear and insecurity are natural and can be lifesaving in the right conditions. It is when they impede our growth and keep us small that they become a problem. When you trust that you are supported, it is okay to try, even if you make mistakes or fail. You trust will have everything you need to learn and recover. Denying yourself the opportunities presented in life because you lack trust in support or believe that you are not worthy of it, becomes a problem.

When I have those moments pop up when I do not feel confident or secure, I get to reframe the situation, identify what true stumbling blocks may be, uncover the truth of what is real, and strengthen my trust and faith in my worthiness. It is a wild adventure at times, but 100% worth it.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Once known as The Confidence Coach, I settled into a publishing journey that continues today. After publishing a couple of solo books about building confidence, I decided to lead others in their publishing journey and helped authors take their books from ideation to publication with my company The Zebra Ink. That included acting as a writing coach, cheerleader, and publisher for each author I had the privilege to work with. My goal was to always make each author feel like they were supported and that there was someone in their corner to ask questions of, strategize with and be supported by when writing and sharing got tough. Distilling skills into each author to embrace vulnerability, build an audience and grow personally and professionally was and still is very important to me.

Two years ago, I closed my publishing label to new authors. I have had multiple health issues, and my body could no longer withstand the stresses of working on multiple books at one time. The desire to share stories and support authors was prominent though, so I launched Zebra Ink Magazine. The magazine serves the indie author and artist community by sharing their stories and work with audiences they would not typically be in front of. I also get to lead a membership community of indie authors and teach writing courses. Serving as a writing coach is still one of my favorite ways to interact with authors.

In 2025, I feel very called to renew my efforts in empowerment, confidence-building and advocacy coaching and writing. Currently, I’m planning a Substack dedicated to all of the above topics, as well as health, healing tips, and nervous system regulation. When power is stripped from someone, regardless of the reason, it helps to have a champion by your side leading them back to empowerment. I’m really looking forward to building a community of healthy, confident, supported people who will show up BIG in the world and accomplish greatness, regardless of the medium they choose.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

First and foremost, I think resilience is high on the list of skills that have served me well in my lifetime. Knowing that I can recover from whatever trial is in front of me is a gamechanger.

Secondly, self-awareness is a key component for how I navigate a meaningful life. When I was stuck in a storm of denial, shame, perfectionism and more, I had no foundation on which to build relationships or grow professionally. Once I got honest with myself about what my strengths and weaknesses are, I began to show up differently and ask for what I needed. I was able to serve better because I continued to build on my personal foundation and that translated into better everything for me and the people I work with and know.

Nervous system regulation rounds out the list of what I believe is necessary to develop. This is knowledge that did not appear until the past few years, but it has truly changed the game for me. Knowing how to take myself out of survival, or fight or flight, mode and into a state of calm, peace and clarity has been life altering. When I was stuck in survival it wore my body down and impacted my emotional and physical health. Now that I know better, I do better. Once a victim of burnout, now I learn to honor my needs so I can serve in bigger and better ways.

How would you describe your ideal client?

If I were to paint a picture of my ideal client, they would be brave. Working with independent authors and artists to build a platform on which to share their craft is an honor of a lifetime. The most successful authors and artists have an abundance of courage because sharing your heart and soul, regardless of the medium, and laying it out for others to judge requires it. Vulnerability is tough to navigate and that is where I like to think I thrive. Authors and Artists who need a little help embracing being vulnerable and assistance strategizing how to best connect with their audiences are my favorite kind of people.

Those who need skills like using their voice, developing and sharing their art/book, platform building and marketing, will find themselves right at home at The Zebra Ink.

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