Welcome to The Curated Confidence, the space where beauty meets truth and confidence isn't just talked about, it's built. And no, not with a filter. I'm English Black, PA, med spa owner, aesthetic coach, and a woman who has walked through fire to stand in her power. If you're here, chances are you're not just chasing a glow up. You're craving a life that feels unapologetically your own. This podcast is about what it really takes to own your story, embody your worth, and express your beauty from the inside out. Not for perfection, not for applause, but because you're done abandoning yourself for everyone else. Each week, I'll bring you real talk, mindset shifts, and the kind of unapologetic truths that help you curate confidence, not just in the mirror, but in how you move through the world. You ready? Let's get into it. Let me start here. Most of us were taught to perform confidence before we ever understood how to build it. We were handed scripts, smile more, apologize less, hustle harder, stay small enough to be liked, but big enough to be useful and, you know, make everybody comfortable. But real confidence, the kind that changes your life, your relationships, your career, that kind is built deliberately. Welcome to the Curated Confidence. I'm English Black, and this is where we unlearn the noise and rebuild something much deeper. Let me introduce myself, although if you're here, we may already know each other. I'm a physician assistant with over 23 years experience. Okay, I'm gonna start over. Let me start here. Most of us were taught to perform confidence before we ever understood how to build it. We were handed scripts, smile more, apologize less, hustle harder, stay small enough to be liked, but big enough to be useful and make everybody comfortable. But real confidence, the kind that changes your life, your relationships, your career, that kind is built deliberately and with intention. Welcome to The Curated Confidence. I'm English Black, and this is where we unlearn the noise and rebuild something much deeper. Let me introduce myself, though, if you're here, we may already know each other. I'm a physician assistant with over 23 years of experience in aesthetic, medical, and surgical dermatology. I've been injecting over 17 of those, and I'm the founder of The Curated Aesthetic, a boutique, med spa in Greensboro, North Carolina, that really focuses on facial rejuvenation, because we want to be the best of the best. We're working on our own confidence over here too, right? and I train both privately and for a company called Allergan, who are the makers of Botox and Juvederm. But titles aside, here's who I really am. I am a woman who has walked through fire. I rebuilt myself from the ground up, out of poverty, through addiction in my family, through my own addictive struggles, out of toxic relationships, and into deep purpose. I know what it's like to feel invisible and too visible at the same time. I've struggled with self-worth. I've worked through health challenges. I've raised three children or I'm raising three children while building a business and holding space for thousands of women in my treatment room. And in every syringe I've held, every consultation that I've had, I've noticed something. It's rarely about the wrinkle. It's about the story behind it. And of note, we can really only give to others what we give to ourselves, things like compassion and empathy. Our capacity to do so is limited by what we can actually give to ourselves in this way. And I see that over and over again in clinic. And this topic of confidence is not talked about enough. You know, these days, if you dress and act the part, you must have it because that many of us don't discuss openly what we all need to feel seen and to see others, to know that we aren't alone and to remember that we all benefit collectively when we support each other one person at a time. And I've noticed something again and again in the woman that I meet, treat and mentor. They're investing in their appearance, their education, they're refining their routines and doing all the right things from a day-to-day standpoint. And still underneath all of this, underneath the polished surface, there's often a quiet question lingering. Am I enough? In my world, beauty isn't superficial. It's powerful. It's personal. And when used with intention, it's a tool for expression, self-trust, and agency, not performance. But confidence, real confidence, that comes from within. That comes from in here. It's not something that you chase. It's something that you curate through clarity, embodiment, leadership, and layers of inner work that no treatment alone can touch. And that really is a journey and self. And that's what this podcast is about. It's a space where beauty and depth belong in the same sentence, where we can explore what it means to choose yourself again and again, and to lead from a place of grounded self-worth, both in and out of the treatment room. you. Every week, you're gonna hear something different, but always real, always authentic. Some episodes, it'll be just me sharing hard-won wisdom from the med spa, motherhood, mindset work, and the messy middle of growth. And most of you that are into self-growth, self-improvement, you know what I mean by the messy middle. Other weeks, I'll be in conversation with women and men who've overcome, reinvented, and returned to themselves, women that I promise you're gonna see yourself in. We'll talk about confidence beyond compliments. Compliments are external. They're things we receive from other people and we want and need our own validation, our own source of power and confidence. We'll talk about beauty without distortion. Beauty is absolutely in the eye of the beholder. And I fervently believe that our beauty is found in our unique appearance and that we use aesthetics as a tool to enhance that. Distortion is when we're losing sight of our baseline. So we'll talk a whole lot about that. Boundaries and burnout. I was reading about boundaries the other day and the absolute definition of it. And it's really where we draw a line to protect our emotional, physical, and mental health with someone else. And burnout is the result of not having any. We'll talk about scarcity versus abundance. A scarcity mindset is coming from a place of lack. There will never be enough. And I can promise you coming out of poverty, that can be a constant ongoing battle. And even if you haven't come out of poverty, I think that depending on the messages we get within our family, within other people that have influenced us over our life, that can be a big struggle and or crutch. And then abundance is obviously when we're coming from a place of gratitude and appreciation, I'm noticing all the things that are going well. And when we focus on that, life just gets better and it expands. the business of aesthetics and the business of becoming. You know, entrepreneurship is a mirror. I have learned very quickly. And it's so interesting that owning a business will help you see quite quickly where you have strengths and where you don't. And it's a mirror as to how you see yourself because you are going to make choices about that over and over again. And it's going to show up in your business and have a lot to say about that. We'll talk about what to do when you feel like you're losing yourself to the roles that you've taken on. I think this one in particular, the first one comes to mind is motherhood. I feel like it's an experience that all women who have had children go through. We're not talking about women that choose not to have children. This is just an experience of when you have children, in the beginning, it's so much about a baby and helping a helpless human become a not helpless human. And it's so easy to lose ourselves in that. But it can also happen in our business with hiring, with simply taking on and on and on and a little bit of overlap with burnout there. We'll talk about mindset that leads even when things are falling apart. Now, this is going to be a pro-level hack when we get there and when we talk about it, because that's really where you'll find your power and rise up out of the ashes, right? Is when everything's falling apart, you find a way to stay positive, stay strong, and make something out of it, make something happen. Then leadership without over-functioning. Again, going back to a little bit of the burnout with boundaries, the leadership without over-functioning is actually learning how to delegate, how to recruit help, how to enlist people in your cause and in your mission. And yes, we'll pull back the curtain on what really goes down behind the scenes of a med spa. The joy, the grief, the glow-ups and the growth, it's all there, I promise. This isn't a show about perfection. It's about power, the kind that comes from knowing who you are, what you value, and what you're no longer available for. So if you've been holding your breath in your own life, shrinking to be accepted, hello, doubting your voice or outsourcing your worth, this is your permission slip to come back to yourself. Hit subscribe so that you don't miss an episode. And if this intro resonated, DM me on Instagram at the English aesthetic and tell me where are you on your confidence journey right now. I would genuinely love to hear from you. We are building something powerful here and I'm so happy that you're a part of it. I believe that confidence isn't found. It's curated through healing, through honesty, and through holding yourself like someone worth rooting for. I promise you are. You don't have to be perfect to be powerful. You don't have to be polished to be worthy. You just have to show up with softness, with fire, and with truth. I'm English Black, and this is The Curated Confidence. Let's curate yours together. Wait, wait, before you go, thank you so much for joining me on the Curated Confidence today. If this conversation sparked something within you, please don't keep that transformation to yourself. Share this episode with a friend, subscribe so you never miss a dose of Curated Confidence, and please leave us a quick review wherever you listen. It truly helps us reach more incredible women like you. Until next time, remember to keep showing up fully, stand tall in your truth, and masterfully curating your