Held on Wednesday 26 August at the stunning BDO Place on Pirie Street, Confidence Unscripted brought together three remarkable South Australian women for an intimate fireside chat about what confidence really looks like - not the polished, unshakeable version we so often imagine, but the real one: the doubts, the nerves, and the practices that help us back ourselves anyway.
Presented in partnership with BDO, the evening was facilitated with warmth and skill by Emma Humphries, Business Development Director at BDO, who guided our three speakers through candid conversation and a round of audience Q&A.
Our Speakers:
Daniella Biagi, Partner at BDO and a recognised voice on confidence and leadership, opened the conversation with a simple but powerful concept: confidence is curiosity. Kids aren't born knowing they're different, she reminded us — self-doubt is something we learn, and something we can unlearn. Her advice? Don't wait to feel ready, and don't wait for the doubt to disappear. Run the experiment. Confidence doesn't come from certainty, it comes from doing, from asking questions, and from building evidence through experience. You don't need to know you can do something - you just need to be curious enough to try.
Nat von Bertouch, former Australian Diamonds and Adelaide Thunderbirds captain and co-founder of Bloom Leadership, brought the lens of elite sport to the conversation. Her approach has always been to put herself out there and see what happens - but always backed by preparation. Be ready for what could come, she told us, without becoming too attached to a specific outcome. Courage takes energy, and it's far easier to draw on that energy when your work is aligned with your values. Her key takeaway was practical: do the work, and let your confidence come from that.
Rose Cocchiaro, Founder and Executive Director of Resolve Divorce, spoke to the quieter, more strategic side of confidence. She reflected on how safety and support can give us the foundation to take real risks, and how finding work that aligns with your values makes confidence easier to sustain. Being a trailblazer, she noted, can be inspiring and isolating at the same time - being disruptive and calling things out is not always a comfortable place to sit. Her advice for navigating that? Know yourself. Know your strengths, and know where your interest genuinely lies, then hold onto your values and purpose when things get lonely.
Following the conversation:
Our audience Q&A brought a question that really resonated a cross the room: what do you do when you can't see anyone who looks like you, or who has done what you're trying to do before? The advice from our speakers was clear - look for mentors in unusual places, stay curious, and just start. You don't need a roadmap to begin. Another question asked for practical tips on how to deal with nerves in the moment. The same threads ran through all answers – be present and in the moment, be prepared, focus on the process (rather than the outcome), and trust yourself.
As always, the evening was about more than the conversation on stage. Guests connected over drinks, shared their own stories of courage during our icebreaker, and supported our ongoing charity partnership with Catherine House which provides help to South Australian women experiencing homelessness.
Our sincere thanks go to our presenting partner BDO Adelaide, for generously hosting us and helping bring this conversation to life, and to our speakers Daniella, Nat and Rose, and facilitator Emma, for so generously sharing their stories with us.
Thank you also to our event supporters Duda Balestrin Photography, Karrawatta Wines, Tony & Marks, Jim Barry and The Lane Vineyard.
