Workshop Summary

This year, the conference is pleased to welcome Maja Jovanic.  Professor Maja will present on: How to Navigate Your Confidence Killers. This engaging, research-informed talk that helps youth understand how confidence is built—and how it can be undermined by failure, criticism, and self-doubt.

Drawing on global research and her well-known work on apologies and minimizing communication habits, Professor Maja breaks down the everyday behaviors that quietly erode confidence.

Through personal storytelling and practical tools, participants learn how to reframe setbacks as part of growth rather than proof of failure. Youth will leave with strategies to protect their confidence, recognize their progress, and move forward with greater clarity and self-belief

Course Learning Objectives

Identify their personal confidence killers (e.g., mistakes, rejection, rumination, negative self-doubt, comparison, criticism, etc.) and recognize how these show up in their thoughts, communication, and decisions.

Explain how systemic barriers and social narratives (including racism, sexism, and public scrutiny) influence confidence and internalized self-doubt.

Apply research-informed strategies to reframe setbacks, acknowledge progress, and actively rebuild confidence after challenges through micro actions.

Normalize setbacks as part of growth by helping youth understand how confidence is built, challenged, and rebuilt through failure, criticism, and persistence.

Increase critical awareness of systems and social messaging that shape confidence, self-doubt, and self-perception..

Equip participants with practical tools and language to protect their confidence, persist through challenges, and move forward with clarity and self-belief.

About the Speaker

Biography:

Professor Maja is a sociologist, author, and TEDx speaker fascinated by what fuels—and fractures—women’s confidence. Since earning her Ph.D. in Sociology in 2014, she has led the largest qualitative global study on women’s confidence and communication. Her research explores what strengthens or weakens women’s confidence, the internal and external factors that shape it, and how women navigate praise, success, and self-expression.

Her TEDx talk, How Apologies Kill Our Confidence, inspired TED IDEAS’ most-read article of 2019 and sparked an international conversation about women’s communication. She has delivered more than 170 keynotes and workshops worldwide and served as lead consultant for Midol’s award-winning No Apologies. Period campaign. Author of Hey Ladies, Stop Apologizing…and Other Career Mistakes Women Make, Professor Maja blends research, storytelling, and humour to help women understand—and reclaim—the roots of their confidence.