Professor Maja

Self-confidence is a skill that can be developed, it is not something we are born with, it is something we learn through practice. Unfortunately, there’s an entire culture that is built on the idea that women need to be “fixed”, or that we innately lack confidence. This is the confidence cult or culture we live in. We’ll explore why the business of self-improvement is disproportionately directed at women, which, you guessed it, ends up hurting our confidence. We will explore the internal influences on our confidence, such as the inner critic. Lastly, we’ll discuss the external hurdles to our confidence, namely, gendered expectations and the unequal household division of labour. Join Professor Maja in this unique and energizing keynote to learn the truth about confidence. Let’s dismantle the idea that women innately lack confidence and need to be fixed. You’ll walk away with a new understanding of confidence and strategies to buffer the social and personal forces that so often hurt our confidence. Join Professor Maja and learn: • How and why the self-help industry disproportionately focuses on women’s “lack of confidence.” • How the internal factors of self-criticism and rumination hurt our confidence. • How external factors such as the household division of labour and gendered expectations negatively impact women’s confidence. • Strategies to address both internal and external factors.

Apologies are confidence killers. So, why are women apologizing so much? Women have a lower threshold of what they consider to be apology worthy moments. However, with every needless apology we give out, it chips away at our confidence. Professor Maja is on a mission to turn the apologetic communication styles of women into confidence-building lingo. Apologies have become a habitual way of communicating for so many of us, and it is intimately linked to deflection of praise, humbleness and gender stereotypes. Join Professor Maja for this very popular keynote and learn: • Why women over apologize. • How apologetic communication patterns like feminine modesty and deflection of praise, hurts women’s confidence. • How gender stereotypes and biases influence our communication habits. • What to say instead of sorry.

Everyone fails, so why do we internalize our failures so much? When we make a mistake, or fail, why do we often feel like failures? Worse, why do we get stuck in that negative critical self-talk, a world of “I should have…” reminding ourselves of our mistakes and shortcomings, rather than recognizing our successes? Join Professor Maja and learn: • Why we’re so self-critical and why it’s detrimental for us • Why perfectionism and multitasking are so damaging to our confidence • How to reduce self-criticism & strengthen our compassionate self-talk

Imposter Syndrome is heavily promoted as an individual problem, requiring individual solutions. But we don’t spend enough time discussing how and why our confidence gets chipped away at in the first place, which then leads to us feeling like imposters. Join Professor Maja in this energizing and information-jammed keynote to explore why the imposter syndrome affects so many of us and how to effectively manage it. We will discuss both the internal and external influences on our self doubt, including perfectionism and people-pleasing. Learning Objectives: • Understand the common fears behind the imposter syndrome and identify how it shows up in our lives • Discuss how our confidence & communication styles are influenced by perfectionism, people pleasing and gendered expectations. • Discuss actionable science-backed strategies on how we can grow our confidence & hold others accountable