Courtney Wald Stopped Performing Confidence and Started Teaching It
Courtney Wald learned early that confidence is often confused with being outspoken. In pageantry, leadership spaces, and daily life, those who appear the most certain are usually assumed to be the most secure. Her own experience told her otherwise.
Now serving as Mrs. Florida United USA 2025, Wald speaks with the clarity of someone who has lived on both sides of that assumption. Her pageant journey spans more than a decade and includes roles as a contestant, a state director, and the co-founder and owner of a national pageant system alongside her mother. That proximity to power changed how she understood leadership—and what it requires.
Confidence, she realized, was rarely being developed. It was being displayed.
When the Narrative Didn’t Match Reality
Wald did not grow up believing in her own certainty. Her childhood was marked by bullying and abuse, experiences that shaped her sense of self quietly and persistently. Confidence was not something she felt entitled to claim. It was something she worked to assemble, often without guidance or language.
Pageantry entered that process gradually. Interviews demanded preparation. Onstage presence demanded consistency. Leadership roles demanded accountability. What looked like confidence from the outside was, in reality, practiced behavior built over time.
As Wald gained experience, she noticed a disconnect. Confidence was treated as an inherent trait rather than a skill. Women were expected to arrive with it fully formed, and those who struggled were often told to “fake it” until they could no longer tell the difference.
That expectation troubled her.
“There’s pressure to appear perfect rather than to be authentic,” Wald explains. “It creates a culture where fake confidence is rewarded while real growth is overlooked.”
The Decision That Reshaped Her Platform
The pivotal moment in Wald’s journey came when she made a deliberate shift. She stopped presenting confidence as something she simply “had” and began teaching it as something that could be built. That decision required vulnerability. It meant sharing her story not as proof of success, but as evidence of process. It meant reframing confidence not as personality, but as practice which gave rise to Bloom in Confidence, a platform rooted in education rather than inspiration. The work focuses on developing self-trust, integrity, and accountability—qualities Wald believes must exist long before any crown is placed.
Through guided confidence journals, workshops, and speaking engagements, Bloom in Confidence offers structured tools designed to help women and girls cultivate confidence from the inside out. Wald has already delivered workshops at US American Miss and the She Is Motivated Summit, grounding her message in practical application rather than performance.
“A crown does not give you confidence—it reflects the work you have done to believe in yourself before you ever stepped on stage.”
Leadership That Extends Beyond Visibility
Pageantry strengthened Wald’s communication skills by requiring her to articulate her story with clarity and restraint. Interviews taught her to adapt her message without compromising its integrity. Leadership roles reinforced that influence is built through consistency, not spotlight.
Outside of pageant week, Wald uses her visibility intentionally. She shares educational resources, engages in conversations around authenticity and leadership, and maintains boundaries that protect sustainability. Stepping away from social media is not a failure of relevance, she believes, but a commitment to longevity.
Her leadership style is grounded and direct. She commands a room through presence rather than ego. She understands that visibility carries responsibility—and that responsibility does not end when the stage lights dim.
Looking forward, Wald is expanding Bloom in Confidence with pageantry-specific journals focused on interview preparation, mindset, and personal branding, alongside life-stage journals addressing marriage and identity transitions. Each project reflects her belief that confidence is not cosmetic. It is cultivated.