Mandi Amor is a dynamic Inspirational speaker and self‑development coach whose lived experience and expertise make her a standout voice in personal empowerment. As the founder of It’sAmor, creator of a globally recognised podcast and YouTube platform, she delivers practical, results-driven development content and courses that have transformed countless lives worldwide.
Holding a Master’s with Distinction in Organisational Psychology and a record as an award‑winning consultant in the City, Mandi blends academic rigour with real-world insight and authenticity.
Her personal journey—rising from a background of financial abuse to influencing national change and developing her proprietary Success Framework—underscores the transformative power of self‑belief and resilience.
In this exclusive interview with The Champions Speakers Agency, Mandi shares her strategies for building unshakable confidence, mastering mental resilience, and igniting peak performance through science-backed, actionable steps that empower both individuals and organisations.
As a leader, what are the tell-tale signs that your team may be struggling with confidence?
Confidence is something where we all struggle. When it comes to business leaders and noticing that in the corporate context, one of the clearest signs is behaviour—engagement and disengagement.
A lot of the work that I do essentially is to build engagement within teams. Signs of disengagement can look like how present employees are, how involved they’re getting in conversations and discussions, and how they’re contributing to the greater runnings of the business in group dynamics and meetings. So it really starts by looking at employee behaviour.
If we notice or see that an employee is becoming increasingly self-critical, critical of others, or not receiving feedback effectively, these are clear signs that there’s something happening with a potential self-worth issue or a sense of failure, which can often be situational. It’s not always representative of that employee as a whole.
We often see this in times of change—new management, team change, or changes to businesses. These are times where we can see changes of behaviour which, on the surface level, can appear as a lack of confidence, but sometimes can be situational. It really does lend into the bigger picture of engagement.
Confidence building in itself is a whole conversation again, which I teach on in terms of how to feel more confident in general.
But for a clear measure for employers and business leaders, we’re just looking essentially for an environment where employees are engaged in feedback, naturally supportive and collaborative. And when we notice these behaviours of increased self-criticism, there’s often a bigger picture playing out as well.
Many people want to feel more confident but struggle to get there. What is the most common mistake you see when people try to build confidence?
This is a favourite subject of mine. Growing up in a background where I witnessed a lot of oppression towards my mother, I subsequently also suffered with low self-confidence and low self-esteem. I was constantly seeing oppression, I was constantly seeing criticism.
Thankfully, the turning point of my journey came when I went on the journey of supporting my mum flee, which had incredible results not only for our family but for the nation as a whole. But the behaviours I used to demonstrate before making that big decision were being the quiet one, being scared to speak up in meetings, not putting myself forward for bigger positions, and always feeling held back.
The common mistake, for the normal person that may not have been through these kinds of experiences, is that we’re all struggling with confidence. The mistake is thinking: if I was confident, I could X, or if I had more confidence, I could go for this or complete that certification or go for the next career goal. We think confidence needs to be present first. That’s the biggest mistake that I see.
When we look at the tangibles, and if I can discuss briefly some of my framework that discusses confidence, confidence is actually part of my process, which is step three, where we develop unshakable belief. What we see from this is essentially a confidence-competence loop.
We’ve got the comfort zone—all of the edges of our experience, whether it be career or relationships, is on the outskirts. If we can imagine the loop in the middle, courage is pushing our actions.
Daily actions, like going out to approach clients or going on dates, whatever it might be in our personal life. On the other side, confidence comes through belief. At the bottom, the skill is actually based around competence. So it all works hand in hand.
To achieve confidence, actions—through courage—fuel the loop. The mistake is thinking we need to have confidence already. We believe we need to be here on the confidence scale, whereas if we look at it as a loop, we see that actions, skills and confidence are developed together. To start the flywheel, it’s about making small actions on a day-to-day basis.
So the most common mistake is waiting until we have confidence. When we feel disempowered or believe we’ve lost power and control, we don’t take action. But action is what pushes that loop forward. We always have control—we can choose to develop the skill of confidence, which is essentially what confidence is: a skill.
Your 8 Steps to Success framework is science-backed and shaped by your personal journey. How does it help people unlock their full potential?
The framework itself, which is a science-backed framework, has been developed over a number of years of my own failures. It’s a reflection of my journey of overcoming adversity.
When it comes to overcoming adversity, I sadly fall on the side of someone who has had a very challenging early start. Growing up, I had numerous health challenges, violence ongoing at home, and I was bullied quite significantly based on what I was seeing happening at home. It all had a knock-on effect in that early stage of my life.
I didn’t have the tools and resources to understand how to overcome and get to where I wanted to be. I tried to read self-help books when I was younger and sought support, but there was nothing tangible until I went on a journey of exploring how I could create a road map while also seeking external support from therapists and coaches. That really happened when I supported my mother and I in making that huge move.
Once I supported rehousing my mum and younger brother, just before the pandemic in 2019, that knock-on effect fuelled my own self-development journey. I began to get support from external coaches, and as a result I started to build out this roadmap.
In line with my personal background, my master’s and coaching expertise, it all developed through my own journey, with the mission of developing a roadmap for achieving peak performance.
My work isn’t necessarily just for individuals that have overcome difficult circumstances. It can also be for those who want to build confidence or achieve sustainable success. It encompasses many different areas.
General personal growth starts with self-love, linked heavily to emotional intelligence. We move through self-confidence in the middle, and then the end goal—whether a job, career, or relationship. It comes with softer milestones like self-love, self-reflection, and self-confidence, and later moves through practical skills like goal setting and motivation building, all based on science.
My signature programme also includes a whole module on money mindset, as that’s something we all struggle with. It’s a hands-on journey of I want to achieve X, so what do I need to do to become the type of person who can achieve that thing?
The steps include:
- Self-reflection
- Let go of the past
- Develop unshakable belief
- Wellbeing and mental health tools
- Choose your desires
- Position yourself to win
- Take action every day
- The surrender solution
It’s a clear journey of how to move forward, combining both philosophical and practical tools to help people get motivated, set goals effectively, and build confidence on a daily basis to succeed.
This exclusive interview with Mandi Amor was conducted by Megan Lupton of The Motivational Speakers Agency.
