Praise the Progress: Dr. Christiane Schroeter on Small Steps and Unshakable Confidence
What if confidence was never the starting line? Dr. Christiane Schroeter has spent years studying how belief actually gets built, and her answer reverses everything most of us were taught.
Signature Quote
"You just have to be okay with it being very uncomfortable. You know, you have to be okay with it not being okay."
This line carries the episode's central reversal. Courage is not the absence of discomfort. It is the willingness to stand inside discomfort long enough for confidence to grow.
Dr. Schroeter moved from Germany to the United States in 1999 and earned her doctorate while studying in her second language. She knows the locked room of self-doubt from the inside. From that experience she built Petite Practice, a simple framework for turning tiny repeated steps into lasting change: simplify the goal, tell someone, examine what happened, and praise the progress.
In this conversation, she breaks down why imposter syndrome is really an equation between what you know and how much you believe in what you know. She explains why praise is the step almost everyone skips, and why it is the very mechanism that converts action into belief. Audley brings his own stories to the table, including the long bike ride that taught him exhaustion is real but inability is often invented.
This Episode Is for You If...
- You feel like a fraud even though the evidence says otherwise
- You keep waiting to feel ready before you begin
- Your goals feel so big that you stall at the size of them
- You want a practical method, not just motivation
Guest Bio
Dr. Christiane Schroeter is a professor, TEDx speaker, and the author of Petite Practice. In 1999 she moved from Germany to the United States, where she earned her doctorate while studying in her second language, an experience that shaped everything she teaches about courage and confidence.
She created the Petite Practice framework, a trademarked system built on four moves: simplify, tell, examine, and praise. Her work helps people stop waiting for confidence to arrive and start building it instead, one small praised step at a time.
Guest Links
https://doctorchristiane.com
Listen on Major Platforms
🎧 Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2jVR6V7X2kRiCCDXE0FTyl?si=IR3TsfEWR3WA6BzfBRnVXQ
🍎 Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-audacious-living-podcast/id1547447345
📦 Amazon Music → https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/9f7902bb-dec8-4bd9-918d-d1fef21b7c67/the-audacious-living-podcast?ref=dm_sh_pGv57yQvAmAQVp2IIaXoDwtFt
Enjoying the show?
Share this episode with someone who needs to hear this.
⭐ Leave a review:
👉 https://ratethispodcast.com/audacious