In this solo episode, James Blasco shines a spotlight on an often‑overlooked dimension of confidence: interpersonal confidence. While most discussions of mental toughness focus on self‑belief and inner resilience, Blasco emphasizes that true strength also comes from how we engage with others. Whether in sports, business, or everyday life, interpersonal confidence is the key to effective communication, emotional control, and building positive, lasting relationships.

Drawing from the world of sports, Blasco shares the legendary story of Joe Montana’s leadership during Super Bowl XXIII. Facing immense pressure in the final minutes, Montana used humor, calmness, and trust to steady his teammates — famously pointing out actor John Candy in the stands to break the tension. This moment illustrates how interpersonal confidence can transform fear into focus, proving that confidence is contagious when modeled through connection and encouragement.

Blasco connects these lessons to the 4 C’s of Mental Toughness — Control, Commitment, Challenge, and Confidence — showing how interpersonal confidence strengthens each pillar. He also weaves in insights from Alfred Adler’s psychology, highlighting the importance of social interest and belonging in building resilience.

Listeners will walk away with practical strategies to practice interpersonal confidence in their own lives:

Using encouragement to lift others up.

Staying calm and clear in high‑pressure conversations.

Building trust through reliability and authentic connection.

This episode is both inspiring and actionable, reminding us that confidence isn’t just about standing tall alone — it’s about standing strong together.

Takeaways:

Interpersonal confidence is a critical part of mental toughness.

Engaging with others positively is essential in all areas of life.

Emotional control enhances communication and teamwork.

Taking risks in communication can lead to growth.

Assertiveness should be constructive and respectful.

Interpersonal skills can be practiced in everyday situations.

Joe Montana's leadership exemplifies effective interpersonal skills.

Lightening the mood can improve team dynamics.

Practice interpersonal confidence daily for personal development.

Self-awareness is key to improving interpersonal skills.

About the Host:

James Blasco is a CTA Certified Coach, and a Certified Functional Mental Toughness and Resilience coach, and a Certified Neuroscience Coach based in Ormond Beach, Florida, with a rich background in sales, media, and entrepreneurship. Throughout his career, James has excelled in sales and sales coaching for some of the largest media companies, owned three successful businesses, and worked in media relations in the NFL. His diverse experiences have equipped him with a deep understanding of leadership, communication, and the drive needed to achieve success. James is also trained specifically to coach to all aspects of mental toughness and resilience.

Having received coaching and mentoring throughout his personal and professional life, James recognizes the profound impact of genuine, constructive, and meaningful guidance. He understands the passion required to pursue a goal, as well as the challenges of doubt, fear, and the need for perseverance. James’s coaching philosophy is rooted in compassion and results, focusing on helping clients uncover their goals, develop actionable plans, and persist through obstacles.

Resources:

Website: www.chargeforwardcoaching.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chargeforwardcoaching/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChargeForwardCoaching/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chargeforwardcoaching

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChargeForwardCoaching

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/ChargeForwardCoaching

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ChargeForwardCoaching

and welcome to another episode of the Charge Forward Coaching Podcast. I'm your host, James Blasco Thanks for tuning in. Well, it's a solo episode today, just me, no guest, but we're going to cover an important topic. I think it's one part of the four season mental toughness that sometimes is overlooked or maybe just not focused on as much. It's part of confidence and you know there's challenge and commitment, control and confidence, but within confidence, there's two factors. There's confidence in abilities.

and interpersonal confidence. And today I want to talk about the interpersonal confidence because I think it does get overlooked. So let's just start with what is interpersonal confidence. And it's really all about engaging with other people. It could be your teammates, your coaches, whomever, other classmates, or even your parents and doing so in a way where you can assert yourself in a positive and constructive way. And why is this so important?

is because everything we do in life has something to do with other people to some degree. Either they're making an influence on us or we're having an influence on them. And in sport, it's really important to be able to have confidence in your ability to engage with other people.

There's a lot of different reasons that it's important that we engage with other people because, well, first off, number one, sometimes that interaction isn't always going to be positive. Maybe you're getting some form of ⁓ negative feedback or critiquing or even rejection. So how you're able to handle that and manage that is really important. Or maybe you see somebody else, maybe a teammate that is struggling with something.

and you want to help them. You have to be able to articulate and assert yourself into how they can benefit and improve without it being negative the best way you possibly can. So interpersonal confidence really comes down to a couple things.

And that is using your mental toughness and resilience to connect and contribute with others. And in a team setting, that could be really, really powerful. So there's a few things you could do to help improve your interpersonal skills. And shockingly, they come from the mental toughness side. And when you look through the four Cs, challenge, control,

commitment and confidence, those other three C's really lend themselves to helping you improve your interpersonal confidence. And so, for example, emotional control could be really helpful to be a better communicator, to be a better teammate, to have people listen to you, especially during times of stress or pressure, you're not letting your emotions overrun you.

And then there's risk orientation. When you feel that sometimes it could be difficult or even really challenging to speak to someone else or a group in a team setting again, you need to be able to take that risk and know that you're trying to be constructive and positive with these individuals or this individual.

and that you're willing to learn from that experience, because you're doing it the right way. And then lastly, commitment and it's achievement orientation. And that is you're trying to accomplish a goal as an individual, but also probably a team. And you're committed to helping improve not just yourself, but your teammates. So you can all get to the big goal that you're striving to get to.

Part of that is being able to talk to your team, talk to your coaches. And it's again, I will ⁓ keep repeating it. It's about doing so in a positive, constructive way, but also asserting yourself and not allowing others who may disagree with you, especially if they're maybe not correct in their opinion or their view on something that you don't just shy away from that, that you could be respectful, but also...

help them understand or maybe get a better perspective of what is the right way to handle a certain situation and move forward. So interpersonal confidence is super critical in developing your mental toughness and improving your life overall because you could apply this in the classroom, you could apply this in just life in general, and it's really important that you can grow and be self-aware of where your interpersonal skills are at this time.

49ers were backed up on their own eight yard line. And obviously the whole season rest on this drive. They, they need to score at least a tie, but even try to win the game, the Superbowl, the biggest of all games. And there's millions of people watching. They get in the huddle, the offensive huddle and Joe Montana steps in and you could, you could tell it's, you know, obviously tense. All eyes are on him. The team's looking for his leadership and they're probably a little.

little tense, little stressed at that time. And what does Joe Montana do? He says, Hey guys, look up in the stands. I think that's John Candy, The actor, the movie star, the comedian. So they look up, there's John Candy and they all start cracking up. And he lightened the mood in the huddle that instantly. He knew how to use his own interpersonal skills to get their attention, but in a healthy way and in a way that relaxed them. And they ended up driving down the field.

And within three minutes with 27 seconds left, Joe Montana throws a touchdown pass to John Taylor. They win the game and the rest is history. But the main point of that is that through interpersonal skills, Joe Montana was able to help his teammates not only calm down and settle down, but he brought them into his world, which was a very calm world. He didn't do it through yelling and screaming and all this rah rah stuff.

but he brought him into his world because he knew that was the appropriate mindset to be in for such an important moment. And he uses interpersonal skills to do that. So while you're working on your four C's in mental toughness, trying to improve in certain areas, don't overlook interpersonal confidence. It is extremely important. And you should practice it every day, whether you're in a classroom by...

just raising your hand, asking questions that maybe you normally wouldn't do. Maybe on the field with your teammates, when you see somebody that's maybe struggling or needs some support or maybe did something wrong, or maybe talking more with your coaches to learn more or to give them ideas of maybe a play or something that you feel really comfortable with that could help the team, go ahead and speak up. Don't be shy. Just do it in a respectful, positive and constructive way. Okay.

So that's interpersonal confidence. If you want to learn more about interpersonal confidence, mental toughness as a whole, just go to chargeforwardcoaching.com. Lots of information there. Of course, you could always contact me. We could have a conversation, free discovery call. I could learn more about you and your goals. You could learn more about me and my coaching and mental toughness. And possibly we could partner on helping you reach your biggest goals. But in meantime, keep working hard.

Stay focused on your goals and keep charging forward.