Meet Elyse Conroy

We recently connected with Elyse Conroy and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Elyse , we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?

How I Developed My Confidence and Self-Esteem: By Leading with Courage

When people see me today – a confidence coach, career strategist, keynote speaker, and podcast host – they often assume I’ve always been this confident.

But the truth is, my confidence didn’t come first. Courage did.

For most of my life, I was painfully shy.

I had to learn, over and over again, to do it scared.

I define fear differently than most.

To me, fear means:
FEELING
EXCITED
ABOUT
REMOVING BARRIERS.

It’s the moment when I feel that knot in my stomach, that voice saying “who do you think you are?” and instead of letting it stop me, I lean into it. I step forward anyway. Because every time I walk through fear, a surge of confidence follows.

Courage always comes first. Confidence is the reward.

Early in my career, working in the beauty industry, I had moments where my self-doubt felt louder than my vision.

I remember sitting in rooms with executives, going to present to Sephora at 24 years old and feeling so much imposter syndrome.

But I also knew this: if I stayed quiet, if I played small, no one would know what I was capable of. So I spoke up anyway. My voice shook. My hands sometimes did too.

And with each moment of courage, I built a new layer of confidence that no one could take from me.

I didn’t just learn how to walk through fear, I learned how to play with it and use it as fuel.

Another one of my confidence generating secret weapons has been allowing myself to be completely, unapologetically delusional.

I believe we are all limitless. The only limits we carry are the ones we put on ourselves.

So when those old voices of “you can’t” or “that’s impossible” pop up, I love to shatter them. I remind myself: if I can imagine it, it’s possible for me.

That’s not delusion – that’s power.

Some of my biggest leaps in life came from moments where I gave myself permission to dream beyond logic.

Quitting jobs that didn’t align with me.

Starting a business when the safe route would have been to stay.

Launching a podcast that now reaches women around the world each week and sits in the global top 5% of all podcasts.

Taking stages I once thought were for “other” women, not me.

Here’s what I know to be true: My greatest success guarantee has been my willingness to feel any emotion.

Fear. Rejection. Embarrassment. Failure. Vulnerability.

I can feel it all and still keep going.

That emotional resilience has allowed me to take risks that once terrified me, risks that ended up transforming my career and my life.

And every time I say yes to courage, confidence comes rushing in behind it.

So, how did I develop my confidence and self-esteem? By making courage my first move. By doing it scared. By redefining fear. By being a little bit delusional. By trusting that the only limits I have are the ones I place on myself.

And by reminding myself, over and over again, that “I can do it”

Because when I believe I can, I will.

It truly is as simple as that.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am the confidence behind the beauty industry.

I help ambitious women and brands rise through executive coaching, dynamic workshops, and electrifying keynotes. With over 15 years leading product development, marketing, and brand development at Fortune 500 beauty giants like Estée Lauder, I know what it takes to succeed at the highest levels of the beauty industry and how much confidence it truly requires.

Today, I coach ambitious leaders in beauty and beyond, consult with top brands on leadership and career development, and teach executives and teams how to present with powerful, authentic authority.

As an executive confidence coach, international keynote speaker, and host of The Confidence Lounge (a global top 5% podcast), my mission is to help women rise faster, speak louder, and lead with purpose.

But here’s the truth: I didn’t build this work from a place of perfection.

For nearly 15 years, I worked at the highest levels of the beauty industry. From high-pressure boardrooms to global campaigns, I was all in.

Helping women feel confident through the products we created was my mission – while chasing the next title, the next win, the next version of “enough” became my norm.

On paper, I looked wildly successful. Behind the scenes, I was burning out. Overachieving. People-pleasing. Quietly exhausting myself to prove I was worthy of every seat I earned.

Then, life gave me a wake-up call. While on a business trip in Milan, I got the news that my dad had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.

Suddenly, the 3-hour commute, the midnight emails, the constant proving – none of it mattered.

That moment cracked me open.

Because the truth was, the confidence I was helping women find through beauty products was only ever skin-deep. I realized that real confidence isn’t something you wear. It lives beneath the pressure, beneath the perfectionism, beneath the proving.

It’s built from the inside out – by taking courageous action, trusting yourself deeply, and moving forward even when you’re scared.

Confidence isn’t curated. It’s claimed.

Once I uncovered that truth, I knew I had to share it.

So in 2018, I walked away from the beauty career I had built and stepped into the life and mission I was always meant for: building a Confidence Revolution.

Today, I work with high-achieving women – executives, entrepreneurs, and rising leaders who are tired of shrinking themselves to fit spaces they’ve outgrown.

I also partner with top beauty brands and Fortune 500 companies to build cultures of unshakable confidence, emotional intelligence, and empowered leadership.

Whether it’s coaching a woman through a bold career move, preparing a team to confidently present to Sephora or Ulta, designing a transformational corporate workshop, or leading an international retreat, my work is always about one thing: helping women stop hiding and start leading with unapologetic confidence.

Through my coaching, consulting, keynotes, and my podcast, I’ve helped thousands of women silence self-doubt, overcome perfectionism, and reconnect with the power they were born with.

I’ve lived the burnout.
I’ve felt the breakdown.
And I know what it takes to rise with clarity, courage, and confidence that lasts.

This work is personal.
It’s powerful.
And it’s my purpose.

Welcome to the Confidence Revolution.

Hire me to speak: https://www.soulmakeup.com/speaking
Listen to my podcast: https://www.soulmakeup.com/confidenceloungepodcast

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Looking back, the three qualities that have been most impactful in my journey are:

1. Doing it scared.

If I waited until I felt confident, I never would’ve done anything. Confidence isn’t the starting point – courage is.

Every big moment in my career came because I decided to do it scared.

I remember the first time I had to present a multimillion-dollar product launch to one of the biggest beauty retailers in the world. My hands were shaking under the table. My brain was screaming, “Who do you think you are?”

But I took a breath to ground myself, stood up, and did it anyway.

Was it perfect? No. But we ended up getting into every door of this retailer with my product and the surge of confidence I felt afterward was proof: courage always comes first, confidence comes as the reward.

Advice: Don’t wait until you feel ready. You’ll never feel ready. Just do it scared and let the confidence catch up later.

2. Treating everything like an experiment.

One of the most freeing shifts I made was deciding that nothing in my career (or life) had to be permanent.

Instead of putting pressure on every decision to be “the right one,” I started treating everything like an experiment. Try, test, learn, adjust.

When I launched The Confidence Lounge podcast, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t know if anyone would listen. But I gave myself permission to just experiment. I recorded, released, and adjusted as I went. Today, it’s a global top 5% podcast.

That never would’ve happened if I was waiting for it to be perfect before I started.

Advice: Give yourself permission to be a beginner. Try things. Play. Don’t be afraid to fail. Failure isn’t final – it’s just feedback that informs your next best success.

3. Redefining rejection.

Rejection used to crush me. I made every “no” mean something about my worth. Over time, I learned to redefine it.

Now, when I hear “no,” I don’t make it mean anything negative. I make it mean Next Opportunity.

One story that changed everything for me: I once applied for what I thought was my dream opportunity with Bossbabe – a platform for ambitious women with millions of followers.

When I didn’t get it, I was devastated.

I took it as a sign that maybe I wasn’t cut out to launch my business or become a global speaker.

I didn’t get the future I was hoping for, and I felt crushed.

But a shortly after hearing no, something unexpected happened.

The Bossbabe team called me back. They told me they loved my energy so much that while I wasn’t the right fit for the original role, they wanted me to come speak at an event on stage with their founder, Natalie Ellis in front of 500 women.

That single “no” led me to something so much bigger than what I thought I wanted.

I’ll admit, I was so disappointed when I first got the rejection that I didn’t even finish reading the email. Thank God I went back to it because life had something so much greater planned for me.

Advice: Trust that you are always exactly where you’re meant to be. A “no” today may be the thing that redirects you to a bigger “yes.”

And above all: Being yourself is your success guarantee.

Working for 15 years in the beauty industry which is built on image and perfection, I spent years trying to fit molds, play roles, and chase approval.

The turning point came when I finally decided to drop the act and be fully myself.

That’s when everything shifted – my brand, my business, my impact.

Authenticity isn’t just refreshing, it’s magnetic.

Advice: Stop trying to fit into spaces you’ve outgrown. Be yourself boldly. That’s the true foundation of confidence, leadership, and success.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

Collaboration is at the heart of everything I do.

I’m always looking to partner with the visionaries, the innovators, the changemakers – the ones who aren’t afraid to disrupt the status quo and create something remarkable.

The beauty industry (and beyond) is craving leaders who dare to think differently, ideate boldly, and build with purpose and those are exactly the kinds of people and brands I love to collaborate with.

How to collab with me:

– Bring me on stage to electrify your audience with a keynote that moves them into action.

– Hire me to design and teach a signature workshop that transforms your team’s confidence from the inside out.

– Invite me onto your podcast or come onto mine (The Confidence Lounge) if you have a powerful story about how courage and confidence surged your career forward.

– Bring me on to contribute to your publication or online forum – I have dreams of writing for Forbes, Success, Inc., and other platforms that inspire ambitious, change-making audiences.

I believe the biggest breakthroughs come from collaboration and I’m always looking to expand my network with powerful expanders – the people and brands who remind me what’s possible and inspire me to keep going bigger.

If you’re reading this and you feel called to create something unforgettable together – let’s connect.

📩 Email me directly: [email protected]

💻 Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elyseconroy/

The future belongs to the bold. Let’s build it together.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.soulmakeup.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elyseconroyxo/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elyse.conroy.9
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elyseconroy/
• Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-confidence-lounge-where-ambitious-women-come-to/id1662270665