If you’ve ever wondered why certain triggers, conflicts, or self-sabotaging habits keep reappearing, this episode will help you understand them at a deeper, transformative level.

By the end, you’ll have a clearer sense of how to access your own shadow, reclaim lost parts of yourself, and unlock a level of self-awareness that elevates both your leadership and your life.

Every high achiever has a few “derailers” lurking beneath the surface, patterns that show up under stress, exhaustion, or uncertainty. In this episode, Maya and Steven D’Souza explore how your shadow influences your leadership, your choices, and your career path… often without you realising it.

Drawing on psychology, Jungian theory, embodiment, biology, culture, and meaning-making, Steven explains how the shadow forms, how it shows up in adulthood, and why ignoring it keeps leaders repeating the same patterns on autopilot.

You’ll Learn:

• What the shadow is — and why high achievers often overlook it

• The link between shadow work and career choices, fulfilment, and identity

You can connect and find out more about Maya on her website www.mayagudka.com or LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/m/in/mayagudka

Connect and find out more about Steven on his website https://stevendsouza.com/ or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-d-souza-5351712/

If you’re a high achiever who has built success through relentless doing, pushing harder, and staying “always on,” this episode will challenge and transform the way you think about achievement.

Maya is joined by bestselling author and leadership thinker Steven D’Souza, whose book Not Doing explores how pausing, letting go, and working with natural rhythms can lead to more success, not less. Together, they unpack the paradox every high achiever eventually faces: you can’t think, act, or lead clearly from a place of frenetic action.

Steven offers a radically refreshing perspective on leadership, ambition, creativity, and sustainable performance. This is not about sacrificing drive, it’s about discovering a more effective, easeful way forward.

If you’ve been feeling burnt out, reactive, overstretched, or like the world is pushing you faster than you want to go… this conversation is for you.

You’ll Learn:

• Why high achievers become trapped in over-action
• The concept of negative capability and why leaders need it
• A new, calmer relationship to time that unlocks creativity

You can connect and find out more about Maya on her website www.mayagudka.com or LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/m/in/mayagudka

Connect and find out more about Steven on his website https://stevendsouza.com/ or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-d-souza-5351712/

Confidence isn’t one thing, it’s many. There’s confidence in your expertise, confidence in being visible, confidence in your new identity, and even confidence in speaking your truth.

In this episode, Maya breaks down three things she often finds herself saying to clients about confidence. From treating confidence like a muscle you can train, to understanding how external factors (like a disengaged boss) can chip away at your self-belief, she reveals what truly helps high-achievers rebuild confidence that lasts.

You’ll also hear why fluctuating confidence is actually a good sign, one of self-awareness, not weakness and how to reframe imposter syndrome as a useful inner signal rather than an enemy to silence.

You'll Learn

• The three types of confidence every high-achiever needs
• Why confidence is built through doing, not waiting
• How toxic dynamics (or poor managers) quietly erode confidence
• Why confidence naturally fluctuates and why that’s normal
• How imposter syndrome can reveal valuable self-awareness
• A small communication tweak that signals confidence instantly

Download the free Career Blindspots Checklist (https://www.mayagudka.com/career-blindspots-checklist)designed for high achievers who want to uncover the subtle habits that quietly hold them back.

To find out more about Maya you can connect with her at www.mayagudka.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayagudka/