Have experienced kind of the same thing. Three years ago I was a very scared individual and couldnt really speak to people I wasn’t familiar with. Until I was forced to move to a different city on my own because of University. I started to build confidence in every aspect of life. Also I started to get into training MMA and became a gym bro. Now I don’t have any problem with taking appointments, speaking to professors, confronting people on the streets. Next semester I got a 90 minute seminar talk and I’m even looking forward to it. I agree, confidence is the solution.