Maya Helps Women Advance To The Next Level Of Their Career Without Overworking & Burning Out

I’m Maya Sharfi, Founder of Build Yourself. I help women advance to the next level of their career without overworking and burning out. My clients have had leadership-level positions created just for them, launched initiatives that got them tapped to lead city-wide organizations, and have landed salary bumps of $40k, and even $80k and $100k.

What motivated you to become an entrepreneur? Is having your own business something you always wanted?

I teach women to take bold action to advance in their career instead of climbing the ladder through grind and overwork. I actually started my company with a bold action: I pitched the dean of students at the Harvard Graduate School of Design that she should hire me to run a career advocacy bootcamp! A few months later, I found myself teaching the workshop, and eventually people started referring me. I got written up in Fast Company, and eventually people started asking me to coach them. Sometimes a bold action is pitching something, and sometimes it’s saying no to something.

When did you consider yourself a success? Did you ever have to deal with the imposter syndrome? How do you overcome the imposter syndrome?

The only way to make impostor syndrome go away is to understand the unique fears that drive your impostor syndrome—and then take consistent action despite it. I call these actions “power habits” in my coaching program. For example, one power habit could be imagining you are the CEO and proposing ideas as if you were her every day in one of your meetings. Or it might be posting consistently to Linkedin as en expert for a month—even though you don’t feel like an expert.

What is the most important when it comes to goal setting? Do you have any goal setting hacks?

In my work, I focus on bold action over hard work. For example, a bold action might be pitching high-profile collaborations to people that excite you, that you don’t think would ever say yes to you. I teach my clients a system for taking bold actions consistently so it becomes a habit. For example, when I was writing my book, I would write a section a day, and I had a habit to reach out to one person a week who could connect me with an agent.

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