Mats Kolbjornsen - Confidence Specialist.
- Isobel Arden
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
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Meet Mats Kolbjornsen.
In this interview, Mark invited Mats Kolbjornsen to create his own fantasy cultural year from the answers to some easy questions where there are no wrong answers. Enjoy his journey below.
Mats Kolbjornsen is a London-based Confidence Specialist and co-founder of The Mind Body Team, a practical, psychology-informed framework designed to help individuals and organisations build sustainable confidence by aligning mindset, physical response and behaviour.
With over 20 years’ experience across mental health, personal development, management support and creative coaching, Mats has played a central role in shaping The Mind Body Team approach. His work focuses on helping creative professionals, entrepreneurs and teams understand how confidence is influenced not just by thought patterns, but by the relationship between mind, body and action — particularly under pressure.
As co-founder, Mats contributes his expertise in confidence building, communication and applied psychology, helping translate theory into everyday tools that people can actually use. The Mind Body Team was developed to move away from quick-fix motivation and instead offer a structured, repeatable way of navigating self-doubt, performance anxiety and change.
Mats delivers keynote talks, workshops, group programmes and one-to-one coaching using The Mind Body Team framework, working with clients across the creative industries, third-sector organisations and business environments. His work has taken him across London, Granada and internationally, supporting both individuals and teams to build clarity, resilience and self-trust.
His contribution to confidence and wellbeing has been recognised through industry awards, including Confidence Coach of the Year at the Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals Awards (2022) and a UK Enterprise Award (2025). These acknowledgements reflect his impact within both the wellbeing and professional development spaces.
Alongside client work, Mats regularly shares insights from The Mind Body Team through talks, audio content and social media, offering thoughtful reflections on confidence that feel grounded rather than performative. His style is structured but human, informed but accessible — always focused on helping people move from overthinking into meaningful action.
Mats' Fantasy Cultural Year ... with a magic wand and time machine to hand.
A Café in Barcelona (and a Big Idea Brewing)
It all starts with a shared daydream: a beautiful building, warm light, and a pavement café in Barcelona. Mats orders a café solo con hielo — Spain’s cool take on an espresso — with a good book resting beside it. The mood is unhurried, thoughtful… and quietly ambitious.
Who Really Values Music?
From that café table, the conversation jumps global. Inspired by research from Vienna, Mark and Mats imagine a worldwide league table ranking how much different cultures truly value music. Not in economic terms, but in meaning, presence, and everyday life. Music may not help us hunt or survive — yet it’s everywhere. Why?
A Spanish family foundation is keen to fund the idea, alongside cultural research, books, and long-form projects. David Byrne’s writing, a Ghost track, and Barcelona’s creative energy set the tone.
A Year-Long Cultural Quest with a twist
Mark ups the stakes: a year-long exploration of music’s cultural importance, with a generous fee, book deal, TED Talk, TV series, and a global university lecture tour. Mats is intrigued — and immediately thinks east, choosing Japan as the starting point.
The foundation proposes a challenge: Mats must listen to just one genre of music for 12 months. He lands on jazz — broad, flexible, and endlessly deep. Metal gets a fond mention too, including Mark’s memory of seeing Dream Theater perform Dark Side of the Moon live in Turin.
Dance, Flamenco, and Rule-Breakers
The imagination shifts to Tokyo. Music students, a loft apartment, cherry blossoms, and a palace view. Mark offers to create any dance performance imaginable. Mats throws in James Brown — then raises the bar with Carmen Amaya, the flamenco revolutionary who shattered gender norms with her power and precision. Sara Baras gets a nod too. Mark wants to know more.
Food, Travel, and Music on the Move
Dinner plans surface — Korean food in Tokyo. Rome appears next, with skateboarding at the World Championships. Then Jamaica enters the picture, a vital musical culture facing real-world challenges after a hurricane. The thread throughout: music as identity, not just sound.
Art, Theatre, and Cultural Wandering
The journey turns almost dreamlike. Virtual galleries. Dalí’s surrealism. A haunting organ performance from Stockholm. Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. A David Lynch film. A West End musical. Opera. Lunch at a Korean restaurant — possibly with Jimi Hendrix. Mats chooses Tokyo as his “day off” city, drawn to its rhythm and way of life.
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Mark Walmsley FRSA FCIM AGSM
Chief Culture Vulture
Arts & Culture Network
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