This past September, I found myself in downtown L.A for Cherry Bombe’s Cherry Jubilee conference (I’ll be at the NYC edition next week!). As I was mingling with my fellow food gals, we had the chance to listen to a few incredible talks.

Then Alyse Whitney took the stage. The most vibrant, beautiful, colorful person in any room. And she spoke about the body shaming she’s faced over the years and her focus on “Good Fat.” She embraced who she is and what she looks like and stands for, damn be to anyone who would tell her otherwise.

I felt a wash of inspiration and understanding fall over the room. How scared each of us is deep down with how other folks see us and if we’re good enough. And Alyse reminded us adult women that we’re enough and we all have something special to offer. We just have to be brave enough to own it and put it out there.

Even as someone who regularly shoots my shots with strangers for this show, puts out consistent posts of my face on social media, this definitely doesn’t come naturally to me. I joke that I wish podcasts were still just in audio form so I wouldn’t have to worry about dolling myself up to chat to my illustrious guests in my own kitchen.

When I had my own startup, one of my team members asked me confusedly why I wasn’t more excited to do television segments. “It’s just part of the job,” is what I’d say.

And the more you put yourself out there, the more confidence muscle memory you make. It somewhat becomes easier, but not totally. And I think if I was completely comfortable and didn’t have any anxiety about my performance or doing well, it would mean I don’t care.

So my request for you this week: Ask yourself where you’ve been holding yourself back out of fear. Take some deep breaths and tell that gorgeous person in the mirror you can do it. And just … try. I promise that the more you do it, the more good luck you create for yourself.