Gloria Williams: Building Confidence in Kids, and in Yourself

Gloria Williams performs, speaks and sings for a living. She also says that making a phone call can take more out of her than any of it. She did not outgrow the anxiety. She found a reason big enough to keep going through it anyway.

Gloria Williams is a presence advocate, which is her own term for cultivating confidence in people, and her medium is music. She is the author of a children's book and companion song called Don't Forget to Be, and she released a project called Unmute Me that still brings messages from listeners years later. She grew up in a musical family that called her a functional mute, because she could sing but would not hold a conversation, and that lasted into her late twenties. Lisa met her at a networking event, where Gloria sang.

Their conversation starts with the message Gloria says the world runs on repeat, that your best self is always a little further ahead and you are not there yet. She argues the opposite: you already have the thing, and the work is finding the nerve to show it. She explains why she wears yellow every time she speaks to children, what songwriting does that talking does not, and one of her lines for kids, which is that what makes you different is exactly what makes you needed. Lisa adds what she saw teaching high school English, where students would not start writing until they already knew the ending.

The second half is for parents. Gloria describes how to receive it when a child shares something they made, and why that moment decides whether they will share the next one. She is careful about safe spaces: promise one and you have to keep it, because using a child's honesty against them later teaches them that safe places do not exist anywhere. She frames fear as largely insecurity, much of which can be reduced with clear instructions and knowing what to expect. And she makes a case for parents using their authority to stop a child from isolating, by finding the community that matches whatever the child is already drawn to.

As always, this is strategic education, not legal or mental-health advice for your specific situation.

🎓 What you'll learn

• Why protecting a child from every uncomfortable moment slows their confidence down
• What to do when your child shows you something they made, and why that moment matters
• How to set up a safe space with a child, and the one thing that destroys it
• Gloria's framing of fear as insecurity, and the part of it you can actually reduce
• Why isolation is the pattern to interrupt, and how to find your child's community
• How to notice and count small wins instead of waiting for a transformation
• Why the people who look confident are often the ones still doing it scared
• What changes when a child hears that being different is what makes them needed

⏱️ Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:00 Meet Gloria, and the message that your best self is always ahead of you
5:00 Why shielding kids from discomfort holds them back
6:00 The "functional mute" years, and what social anxiety still costs her
8:00 Yellow, light, and what singing carries that talking can't
11:00 Treasure on the other side of exposure
14:00 Victory in vulnerability, and what nobody sees backstage
17:30 Safe spaces, and never using one as leverage
23:00 Fear as insecurity, and the part of it you can reduce
28:00 Isolation, parental authority, and finding your child's community
35:00 Where to find Gloria

Keep going 💜
Book a free 30-minute discovery call and we'll help you map your next steps: https://beentheregotout.com/call
📘 Been There Got Out: Toxic Relationships, High-Conflict Divorce, and How to Stay Sane Under Insane Circumstances — https://www.amazon.com/dp/194627495X
📘 Been There Got Out: When Your Ex Turns the Kids Against You (our parental-alienation book) — https://www.amazon.com/dp/1967674183
🔗 Gloria Williams: https://iamgloriawilliams.com/
🔗 Gloria Williams on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamgloriawilliams/

About Been There Got Out
Chris Barry and Lisa Johnson are high-conflict divorce, custody, and co-parenting strategists, and the founders of Been There Got Out. They know these cases from the inside: both have successfully represented themselves in family court. Few attorneys have a playbook for a case like this — Chris and Lisa write yours with you, so you and your kids can get through it as unscathed as possible.