127. Ella Halikas on Building Delusional Confidence, Overcoming Fear of Failure & Dating Insecurities

Welcome Greek Goddess, curve model, and content creator Ella Halikas to the show! Ella shares our mission to help other women feel confident in their skin, and turned her biggest dream into a reality by becoming a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model in 2021. We admire Ella’s confidence and her ability to go after her goals with determination and grace. She reminds us that we get to our big goals by focusing on our passion, and striving to be our best self every day. 

Today she is sharing her best advice for setting boundaries with family members when it comes to conversations about weight, building “delusional” confidence, overcoming fear of failure, setting goals while avoiding burnout, and how rejection breeds resilience. We discuss dating as curvy women, and the self-worth struggles we are working through. We also talk about what it’s really like working as a full-time curve model, and the exciting project she will be releasing soon. We are grateful to Ella for sharing her wisdom and experience, and know you’re going to love this conversation!

“I think that having confidence really means wanting to be better than who you were yesterday. I'm always striving to be the best version of myself in all different facets.” - Ella Halikas


We also talk about:

  • Ella’s experience being raised in a Greek household

  • Setting boundaries with family members

  • How to determine what your goals are

  • Learning from failure

  • How Ella handles rejection in the modeling industry

  • Why Ella struggles with dating confidence

  • What Ella tells herself on her low confidence days

  • How to navigate gaining weight and nothing fitting you anymore

  • Ella’s biggest ick when it comes to dating

  • Avoiding goal burnout


“We grow and we learn so much from our failures. I learn the most about myself, about what I can achieve, how I can handle situations, when I fail, when I lose, when I get rejected, when I get told no, when I get dropped from agencies, when I don't get the job anymore. Don't let that stop you because literally on the other side of failure is the win.” - Ella Halikas

New podcast episodes of Confident Collective drop every Tuesday.

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