{"podcast":{"title":"Authentic Confidence with Dr. Aziz","slug":"authentic-confidence-with-dr-aziz-739023","podcast_index_feed_id":739023,"rss_url":"https://shrinkfortheshyguy.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"https://www.socialconfidencecenter.com/podcasts/authentic-confidence-with-dr-aziz","image_url":"https://kajabi-storefronts-production.kajabi-cdn.com/kajabi-storefronts-production/file-uploads/sites/2147501487/images/18e67b-ce6-4704-4e38-1526461667_Podcast_Banner-3000x3000_04.jpg","author":"Dr. Aziz Gazipura, Psychologist and Author","episode_count":641,"summary":"Do you worry what other people will think? Does it make you doubt yourself, feel guilty, and ultimately stop you from being fully yourself? This can show up as people-pleasing and difficulty saying no. Or as social anxiety, staying silent in meetings, replaying conversations for hours afterward. Dr. Aziz Gazipura is a clinical psychologist and bestselling author of Not Nice. He's helped thousands of people break free from self-doubt and the fear of others' opinions. After 20 years of clinical work, Dr. Aziz discovered one pattern running underneath all of it. He calls it the approval trap: prioritizing approval over being yourself, saying what you mean, and going for what you actually want. This show is for the person who looks confident on the outside and doesn't feel it on the inside. New episodes every Wednesday. Next Steps: 1. Discover your approval type. Take the 2-minute quiz to find out which of the four patterns is running your work, dating, and social life — Diplomat, Avoider, Fixer, or Performer: www.draziz.com 2. Apply for the Unstoppable Confidence Mastermind. Dr. Aziz's flagship year-long program for serious work on confidence, authenticity, and freedom from self-doub…","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/authentic-confidence-with-dr-aziz-739023"},"episode":{"title":"Why Knowing How to Speak Up Isn’t Enough","slug":"why-knowing-how-to-speak-up-isn-t-enough","published_at":"2026-02-03T16:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/authentic-confidence-with-dr-aziz-739023/why-knowing-how-to-speak-up-isn-t-enough","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/authentic-confidence-with-dr-aziz-739023","url":"https://www.socialconfidencecenter.com/podcasts/authentic-confidence-with-dr-aziz/episodes/2149161641","audio_url":"https://app.kajabi.com/podcasts/medias/2149161641.mp3","summary":"Join Dr. Aziz live for a 3-day VIRTUAL event: Not Nice LIVE &gt; Go here for details and tickets. Most people don’t struggle to speak up because they lack communication skills. They struggle because crossing that line feels dangerous. In this episode, Dr. Aziz Gazipura explores why you may still feel stuck in passivity or half-assertiveness, even if you’ve spent years working on yourself. You understand the ideas. You know you “should” speak up. And yet, when the moment arrives, something pulls you back. Rather than offering scripts or techniques, Dr. Aziz focuses on the real breakdown point: the guilt and fear that surface just before honesty. He examines how indirectness becomes a form of self-protection, why “gentle” assertiveness often fails to create real change, and how unspoken rules about being good, kind, or acceptable quietly limit your life. This episode isn’t about becoming aggressive or finding better words. It’s about recognizing the internal code that says, “If I’m really honest, I’ll lose everything,” and understanding why that belief continues to run your behavior unless it’s directly confronted. If you already know a lot about assertiveness but haven’t been able to live it consistently, this conversation names the threshold you may have been standing at for years—and what it actually takes to cross it. --------------------------------- &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Many people reach a point where they realize something important: being “nice” isn’t working anymore. For years—sometimes decades—they believed that staying flexible, not rocking the boat, and avoiding discomfort was the right way to live. They told themselves they were being considerate, kind, easygoing. They avoided pressuring people, avoided conflict, avoided making anyone uncomfortable. And then s…","meta_description":"Join Dr. Aziz live for a 3-day VIRTUAL event: Not Nice LIVE > Go here for details and tickets. Most people don’t struggle to speak up because they lack…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1226,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/authentic-confidence-with-dr-aziz-739023/episodes/why-knowing-how-to-speak-up-isn-t-enough/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/authentic-confidence-with-dr-aziz-739023/why-knowing-how-to-speak-up-isn-t-enough.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}