It’s officially autumn and whilst the darker days and colder weather can be challenging; there is something magical about starting a new season. I think that’s why many people love the back-to-school time, not necessarily because of school but because of the idea of a new year, a fresh start and a blank slate. So, if you have been finding it hard to find the inspiration, energy and intention to start afresh this autumn, today I’m sharing the prompts that I use when I’m starting a new season of my life. I like to do this every 3 months as the weather changes, as I feel focusing on shorter seasons allows me to stay present and excited with my goals and intentions instead of them feeling faraway and abstract.

These lists and frameworks help create systems and plans around my goals and my bucket list moments. It’s what helped me start a business, grow my podcast and train for a half marathon whilst finishing university, writing my thesis and graduating top of my class. As a type B girl, I love building easy systems that I can look back on, this way I don’t have to rely on fleeting motivation and inconsistent energy to get things done. These lists are perfect for you if the idea of a crammed colour coded calendar gives you anxiety, but you still want a sense of rituals and routine for the next season.

1) The Learn List

I think this list is an essential for every hot and smart individual, especially if you are no longer in school, university or education. One of the best things you can do is to foster your curiosity and a love for learning. I started making learn lists last year after graduating university to finally make time to learn about all the intellectual side quests and rabbit holes that interested me. As I finally had time to read books that weren’t related to my degree, I wanted to find random things I thought were intriguing and this eventually changed into a list of things I generally wanted to know more about. For me this list is a total assortment, there is everything from astrophysics to the history of the witch trials to understanding neuroplasticity better. I found that the practice of noticing and documenting my curiosity gave me inspiration for things to do when I would just default into scrolling.

I still love watching YouTube and scrolling through social media, but now I also make playlists of videos linked to topics I want to know about and then when I have empty filler time like cleaning the house, doing my makeup or going on a walk, I will listen to podcasts or watch videos on these topics. I have found this is the easiest way to get smarter and feel more confident. Not only is this beneficial for you but also for your social life, instead of having boring conversations, I have found doing this with my friends means we can talk about what we have been learning recently instead of the same repetitive social script. If you are looking for inspiration this is my current learn list:

2) The September 10 List

I have started making one of these lists every month. It’s kind of like a bucket list but slightly more mundane. I used to love making summer bucket lists as a child and making a list of things I want to try, and experience has allowed me to be more intentional about how I spend my weekends and evenings. Often, I am too tired to plan what to do when it is time to relax so I end up defaulting to watching a movie. Whilst I still love watching movies and shows, making these lists has made me feel like my own life is a movie worth watching. This list is just places in my city I have been meaning to go to, hobbies I’ve wanted to try and things I have been procrastinating. I don’t put pressure on myself to finish everything.. and sometimes I do stuff the following month instead, but documenting my random desires and adventures has added more whimsy into my day to day again. If I can’t think of ten things, sometimes I also add “surprise” to the list too and leave space for a random adventure.

Comment down below and tell me what is on your 10 list this month

If you’re ready to move from inspiration to implementation, the next three frameworks are the ones I use to stop procrastinating, excuse on my ideas and actually get things done. Become a paid subscriber to unlock the rest of this guide and all the practical frameworks I use to build my life and business.

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If you’re someone who loves all things creative, delicious food and a little bit of adventure, or you’re trying to find a female-friendly city to solo travel, move abroad or work remotely for a few months, I’m putting Madrid right at the top of your list.

I adore Madrid. It’s one of my favourite cities in the world. I moved there when I was 20 and it’s the city that turned me from a girl into a woman. I learned so much from living there and it completely changed the trajectory of my life. Aside from the classics like Plaza Mayor and all the places every travel guide will tell you to visit, there are so many things I wish someone had told me before I moved, along with lots of random recommendations that made living there so special. So, I thought it was time to ungatekeep them.

In this guide you’ll find

• Where to eat, from cheap and cheerful spots to fancy and fun

• Where to work, including my favourite coffee shops and laptop-friendly cafés. I’ve also included access to my database of 33 cafés, complete with Google Maps links, Wi-Fi notes and laptop policies. One for every day of the month, plus some extra mentions.

• Where to network and meet brilliant people, especially if you’re travelling solo or moving abroad. I’ll also share the communities I’d join if I landed in Madrid again tomorrow.

• Where to party and perrear ;)

• Side quests, day trips and all the random recommendations that didn’t fit neatly into any other category but absolutely deserved a place in this guide.

The full guide is for the Bossy Crew and paid subscribers. If you’d like to keep reading, come and join this bossy corner of the internet.

But, if you’d like a few free recommendations first, we recorded an entire podcast season in Madrid. It isn’t just full of restaurant recommendations. We also talk about moving to Spain as a creative entrepreneur, navigating the visa process, building an online and offline business abroad, making friends, dealing with loneliness, building trust in yourself and creating a life that feels like yours.

You can listen to the full Madrid playlist here:

If you just wanted an overview, hopefully this has given you a good starting point. But if you want all the tea, my personal recommendations and the places I’d send my girls group chat, here is what you need to know …

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Have you ever asked the universe for a sign? Something small or silly to act as a guiding light when you found it hard to make a tough decision.

I have tried many times. I looked for a sign when I wasn’t sure if I should stop applying for jobs and start a business, when I wasn’t sure if I should break up with someone, when I wasn’t sure if I should move abroad, travel, stop speaking to that friend or try the new thing that scared me. I was always terrified of making the wrong decision or reversing all my progress, hard work and healing, so I kept relying on some greater power to make sure I stayed on course.

At every significant crossroads, I would plead with the universe to make it clear what I should do. Sometimes I would ask to see an eagle, a butterfly or a bear, and sometimes a specific set of numbers. But I often ended up feeling even more unsure and confused, wondering, “Is that really the sign?” or “Where is it?”

Having asked for several signs over the past few years, sometimes receiving them and often not, I realised more and more that the sign was usually just confirmation of what I quietly already knew. My intuition was so subtle that I found confirmation and clarity in all the little things outside of myself.

Recently, I was craving a sign. I was pleading for a plan from the universe because I felt really unsure and anxious about where I wanted to live next and what I wanted to do. But despite how hard I looked, I couldn’t find any sign that contained clear instructions. Slowly, I grew tired of frantically looking for the right thing, so I sat in silence, waiting for the right thing to come to me.

I used to feel deeply uncomfortable with silence. It felt like the quiet before the storm, and I surrounded myself with constant stimulation. But this year I have tried to slow down and make more space and time for nothing. It was in these in-between moments that I would hear the whisper of a random idea, a new project or, if I waited long enough, the answer to the questions I had been asking.

When I first heard these thoughts, they felt deeply random, but the more I listened, the louder this internal voice became. It showed me how often we already know the answers, but seek advice, confirmation and validation from others because we don’t trust ourselves, especially if the answer strays from what everyone else expects, does or perceives as “the right thing to do.”

Another practice that helped me hear this inner voice more clearly was doing morning pages. I used to wake up every morning with this anxious sensation that the clock had already started ticking and I was running out of time to make it a productive day. I would replay the same memories that made me angry, nostalgic or sad. This year, I started noticing the pattern and began writing everything down.

Now, the first thing I do when I open my eyes is dump all the noise from my brain onto the page. By mapping it out, I can see much more clearly what I need to let go of, what I want to focus on more and what I need to do next. It was through morning pages that I rediscovered how much I love writing and reflecting. It was through them that I decided to start writing properly on Substack. It was through them that I started other projects, reached out to random people and let go of beliefs that no longer felt like they were mine.

This is not me saying that journaling fixes all your problems, but that when we feel lost, anxious and uncertain, we often need to reduce the noise in our minds enough to hear the quiet voice suggesting what to do next. You can do this through morning pages, movement, meditation or art. There are infinite ways to make that voice louder. The louder it gets, the less you feel dragged along by life and its randomness.

Often, it takes time for that inner voice to know what to do next, especially when we rush it, force it or put endless pressure on it to immediately give us answers. I have started creating something I call the “Ideas Garden”, which is really just a fancy way of saying a list of all my inspiration and ideas that I’m not ready to act on yet. I plant the seeds on that page and give them time. Often, when I come back to them, I find new context, approaches and methods to “harvest” those ideas into the next step I want to take in my work or my life. Some of those ideas have sat on those pages growing for months, even years.

Last month, I decided to create a magazine celebrating South Asian women called Bossy and Brown (coming out this Friday!), and it all happened incredibly quickly. From the moment I made a video about the idea to holding the finished first edition in my hands took just five weeks. What people don’t see online, though, is that I first came up with the idea of making a magazine over two years ago. I didn’t know what I would call it or how it would work, so I simply parked the idea until it was ready to grow. I share this because we forget, especially in moments of panic or pain, that there are so many ideas waiting beneath the surface. We are often just one random action away from finding the next thing that brings us joy and fulfilment.

So instead of begging for signs, I challenge you to make time to connect with the wisdom already within you. You already have so many of the answers when you let go of the doubt and fear that are holding you back from taking the next step. I’m not saying that signs don’t exist or don’t work, but in my life they have usually been confirmation of what my internal compass already knew all along.

This is your sign to trust yourself a little more. It will all work out. I promise.

Besos xoxo, Maahika

Bossy Behind the Scenes is my little corner of the internet where we explore both our internal and external worlds. Through essays like this, we untangle the thoughts, fears and beliefs shaping our lives. Then, through practical frameworks, resources and behind-the-scenes lessons, we build the lives, businesses and careers that feel exciting and authentic to us.

Hi, I’m Maahika :)

I’m an entrepreneur, writer and podcast host currently building my “rich aunt lore”. I’m the founder of Empower Sounds Media and host of Reclaiming Bossy, listened to in 65+ countries. I’m also one of the UK’s Top 100 Female Founders and a UK Ambassador for Inspiring Girls.

Welcome to Bossy Behind the Scenes, a place where we build our bold and bossy lives, businesses and everything in between.

As a free subscriber, we explore the internal world through essays and reflections on what I’m experiencing, questioning and figuring out as I build my own life, leaving you with questions to explore what you want yours to look and feel like too.

As a paid subscriber, we build the external world. I ungatekeep the practical frameworks, advice and resources I use to build my own life and business, alongside everything I’m learning from the brilliant founders, creators and experts I interview on Reclaiming Bossy. Plus recommendations, travel finds, my Opportunity Radar and, of course, all the juicy rich aunt lore I collect along the way.

Come build your boldest and bossiest life with us <3

Want to work together?

→ Creator/Founder/ Bossy Office Hours: Starting out in your career or building something of your own? Bring me your ideas, questions or the thing you’re stuck on, and we’ll turn it into an actionable plan.

→ Building a business or brand: I work with founders, brands and organisations through Empower Sounds Media on storytelling, personal branding, content and communications. Book a Strategy Session, Discovery Call or join the next Storytelling Sprint.

After being consistent for 6 months, I haven’t posted an essay for a month. The feeling of falling behind or slowing down started creating this white noise and anxiety in the back of my brain, and the longer I left it, the harder it felt to restart writing again.

At the start of this year, I was totally heartbroken, burnt out and felt completely unsure what to do next. I started the new ritual of going to a coffee shop every Sunday and started to write. Creating this space meant that I suddenly had endless ideas. It was the part of my week I looked forward to most… a frothy cappuccino the size of my face and my essays contemplating everything. I had 12 followers and zero pressure to make something out of it, so I wrote from a place of creating for the act of creation, not for validation, output or optimisation. It felt like magic. The words would just pour out onto the page. I instinctively knew what I wanted to say, and my overthinking, overachieving, optimising brain would turn off.

Slowly, I started to see traction around my writing though. People were resonating, I started slowly getting more followers and subscribers, and I even hit the Rising Stars list one random sunny weekend, the day after I got my first paid subscriber.

That is when the familiar voice in my head that likes to create plans and strategy crept in and overpowered the softer, more creative voice. I started creating plans of things I could do to gain more subscribers and treat it like a business and not a hobby. It came from a good place of genuinely wanting to create value and help people and write things that were more useful than my mere musings. But instead, it created this pressure. Every time I went to write, the feeling of play was replaced with the policing of every single word and trying to make it the best it could be.

I feel like we do this with not just our creative works but ourselves. I find myself trying to optimise and improve myself and my life with the intention of making it better, but I end up stripping it of the essence that made it unique and magical.

I find even with beauty and appearance, it’s not the times that I have had the clearest skin or flattest stomach that I have felt most beautiful, but the times when I was having fun and being playful, wearing bold outfits, getting red lipstick stains on tea cups and wearing nice perfume, that I felt the best.

The more I reflect, the more I realise that even with my business, my greatest success has not come from the moments where I have had the most polished pitch or had the perfect slides, but when I have let myself be me and made a comment that ended up resonating with people, sharing a mistake, making a joke and being human.

We are craving this vulnerability and imperfection more and more as it’s becoming harder to know whether the stuff you see on your daily scroll is real or AI. And I love AI as much as the next girl, but in the culture that many of us have grown up in, where perfection, filters, optimisation, productivity and output are the norm, the most radical thing you can do is be a human.

I was speaking to my client last week who lives in Spain, and we were reflecting on how everything in Madrid shuts down in August. Growing up, for me, Sundays were the day I actually locked in and worked on my homework, summer was when I found my next internship or summer school, so the idea of everything stopping for a month gave me the feeling of visceral anxiety.

It’s the same anxiety I had not writing an essay for a month. The same anxiety I had when I didn’t check my emails during the weekend, and the same anxiety I had growing up looking at every picture in my camera roll where I felt I didn’t look perfect.

This August, I’m tired of aiming for another summer glow-up where I lock in and dramatically change my life and meet all my goals. I turn 23 this month, and I hope this year, as well as writing the long list of goals and achievements I want to tick off, I allow myself to exist in between.

I’ve been toying with plans and ideas to make this community super structured and better and better, but I’ve decided that for now I want it to be a place where we can build bold, bossy and delicious lives without the need to make a 10-page framework.

So instead of promising you a set schedule of what you can expect here this summer, this will be a space for adventure.

With every essay, I will either explore part of my internal world and prompt you to do the same with me, leaving you with questions.

Or we will explore the external world together. I will share my recommendations, rich aunt lore (which I’m still building), and also all the learnings and resources I come across on my mission to build the most authentic and aligned life.

If you are also trying to create your dream life, please take this as your sign, reminder and permission to experience it, to enjoy it too. You can’t create your dream life whilst exhausted.

Stay tuned, it’s going to be an interesting Leo season.

Hi, I’m Maahika :)

I’m an entrepreneur, writer and podcast host currently building my “rich aunt lore”. I’m the founder of Empower Sounds Media and host of Reclaiming Bossy, listened to in 65+ countries. I’m also one of the UK’s Top 100 Female Founders and a UK Ambassador for Inspiring Girls.

Welcome to Bossy Behind the Scenes, a place where we build our bold and bossy lives, businesses and everything in between.

As a free subscriber, we explore the internal world through essays and reflections on what I’m experiencing, questioning and figuring out as I build my own life, leaving you with questions to explore what you want yours to look and feel like too.

As a paid subscriber, we build the external world. I ungatekeep the practical frameworks, advice and resources I use to build my own life and business, alongside everything I’m learning from the brilliant founders, creators and experts I interview on Reclaiming Bossy. Plus recommendations, travel finds, my Opportunity Radar and, of course, all the juicy rich aunt lore I collect along the way.

Come build your boldest and bossiest life with us <3

Want to work together?

→ Creator/Founder/ Bossy Office Hours: Starting out in your career or building something of your own? Bring me your ideas, questions or the thing you’re stuck on, and we’ll turn it into an actionable plan.

→ Building a business or brand? I work with founders, brands and organisations through Empower Sounds Media on storytelling, personal branding, content and communications. Book a Strategy Session, Discovery Call or join the next Storytelling Sprint.

Besos xox,

Maahika

What is true Bravery?

This is a question I asked myself six months ago in the foothills of the Himalayas over a cup of coffee with three individuals who I felt personified entirely different elements of how bravery can be understood and who reshaped the way I see it. This is a conversation that ended up setting the tone of year ahead…

Sat with me was an army officer who was awarded medals for risking his life through service to his country. Next to him, a survivor of domestic abuse who left her marriage after 16 years of physical, emotional, and financial harm to rebuild her life and start a successful business. And next to her, a woman who took a chance on love and left her career, friends, and family behind to follow a sailor around the world and create a life together from scratch, defying the cultural and societal norms of the time.

I posed this question to the table because I believe our unique circumstances shape the meaning we add to words, whether they be love, fear, risk, or pain. Whilst they live as words in dictionaries, each individual experiences them differently, informed by their differing values, cultural contexts, and expectations of others and ourselves.

The conversation came up initially when I asked the army officer if he felt scared going into combat, risking his life, and being in high-stress situations. In his response, he relayed the value of bravery, and when asked what bravery meant to him, he shared that it was risking your life for a greater good. I then asked him if he felt that those who do not serve their country through the military can be brave.

“Of course!” he replied. Reflecting on that, he said bravery was about selflessness and following a purpose. For him, that purpose was service, but in other contexts it could be more personal.

That’s when I asked the woman next to me what bravery meant to her, as I felt leaving a situation that does not serve you and starting again is one of the bravest acts. We often obsess over the sunk costs of something, and leaving a relationship after investing years of energy, time, and presence can be incredibly confronting.

This is something that really resonated with me as someone who went through a big breakup the week after this conversation.

Her words stuck with me. She said bravery was about trust. First and foremost, self-trust, and then also trust in life and the divine. When life seemingly deals you a poor hand, trusting that you can play your cards differently and win is the bravest thing you can do.

The woman next to her took the idea a step further. “Bravery is about taking the leap,” she claimed.

She said that she had no visibility around what her life would look like, but choosing love was the bravest thing she ever did. This meant letting go of control and believing in the intentions of someone and something completely different from what she was previously used to.

My experiences and perspective were entirely different from those sat with me. Being a lot younger than the rest, the bravest things I had ever done up to that point were the things I did even when I felt scared: moving abroad and building a life from scratch, starting a business at university with no money and no experience, and saying yes to things and people without knowing if it would work out.

What struck me most was that whilst all our definitions differed, they complemented each other perfectly as essential ingredients of bravery. Reflecting on our varied journeys, I now feel that bravery is a mix of trust, action, and purpose. It is intentionally acting on something whilst afraid and without visibility of a certain outcome, but still trusting it will work out.

The funny thing is that the week after this conversation, I broke up with my first boyfriend, had to let go of two team members in my business, and felt terrified to start again. I was burnt out, exhausted, and struggling with some of the worst inflammation and acne I’d experienced in years. I didn’t feel confident, inspired, or ready for what came next.

But looking back, that trust to start again opened doors and opportunities I couldn’t have imagined.

Since then, I feel like I’m slowly getting my spark back. In this chapter of my life, being braver looks like trying harder for what I really want. I have always felt scared to fail, so I would act, but never give 100% to something because if it failed, I could blame it on the 10% or 20% I knew I still had left to give.

But now I’m not only acting with bravery, but trying with bravery, despite looking stupid or failing. I’m learning that failure is learning, and life is nothing without learning, so sometimes the bravest thing you can do is fail.

So I’m willing to risk failing with my business and with my goals and even with my next relationships, but this time I will actually try knowing that there is a big chance that I can fail.

What I hope this conversation shows is that bravery can look so different for us all. For some, the action of bravery is more literal; for others, it can be a conversation or simply saying yes or no to something.

So I leave you with a question: what does bravery mean to you, and how can you be a little braver in your life?

Hi, I’m Maahika :)

I’m an entrepreneur, writer and podcast host currently building my “rich aunt lore”. I’m the founder of Empower Sounds Media and host of Reclaiming Bossy, listened to in 65+ countries. I’m also one of the UK’s Top 100 Female Founders and a UK Ambassador for Inspiring Girls.

Welcome to Bossy Behind the Scenes, a place where we build our bold and bossy lives, businesses and everything in between.

As a free subscriber, we explore the internal world through essays and reflections on what I’m experiencing, questioning and figuring out as I build my own life, leaving you with questions to explore what you want yours to look and feel like too.

As a paid subscriber, we build the external world. I ungatekeep the practical frameworks, advice and resources I use to build my own life and business, alongside everything I’m learning from the brilliant founders, creators and experts I interview on Reclaiming Bossy. Plus recommendations, travel finds, my Opportunity Radar and, of course, all the juicy rich aunt lore I collect along the way.

Come build your boldest and bossiest life with us <3

Want to work together?

→ Creator/Founder/ Bossy Office Hours: Starting out in your career or building something of your own? Bring me your ideas, questions or the thing you’re stuck on, and we’ll turn it into an actionable plan.

→ Building a business or brand: I work with founders, brands and organisations through Empower Sounds Media on storytelling, personal branding, content and communications. Book a Strategy Session, Discovery Call or join the next Storytelling Sprint.

Besos xox,

Maahika

I love making plans and coming up with new strategies to improve my life, my podcast and my business. Recently, however, I have been finding myself getting more and more frustrated when something doesn’t work despite meticulous planning. I will come up with new ideas, angles and ways to move something forward and still it often won’t pan out the way I anticipated.

So for the next 15 days, I am trying something different.

Instead of trying to optimise, strategise and figure out the next best move, I am running a little experiment around radical authenticity. I have also made a free Notion template if you want to do it with me.

The reason for this experiment came from reflecting on the times I have been lucky or successful and trying to reverse engineer some of that magic to understand what I did differently in those moments. If I am honest with myself, the times I have got my biggest clients for my business, opportunities for my podcast and other creative pursuits or even had some of the best experiences of my life are when I accidentally let myself be myself.

Every time I tried something, I thought there was a way I “should” do it, a way I “should” speak or work or do outreach or create videos. Trying to use other people’s playbooks has never really worked for me because the people who were looking for me to work on a project or collaborate or even be friends couldn’t find me as I was trying to be someone else.

I always believed you have to act like the person you want to become, so I surrounded myself with mentors, guides and advisors in the hope that their skills, mindset and magnetism would rub off on me. Whilst it is incredibly important to be coachable and to keep pursuing learning and growing, you will never truly set yourself apart by following in everyone else’s footsteps. Doing what you “should” feels safe though, it gives you the feeling that you are taking the right steps and doing enough, but what if the secret was to do less and instead act with radical amounts of intention and authenticity?

It sounds simple, but it isn’t always easy because being authentic allows for vulnerability. It means people can see who you really are, what you value, how you communicate and they can judge you. Worse, they can ignore you. But the truth is people judge and ignore you regardless.

Yes, the risk of being rejected is there, but missing out on aligned opportunities because of the fear of exposure is even worse.

So whilst you may have seen challenges around shooting your shot every day, I want you to try something slightly different. I want you to create something that is entirely authentic to you every day for the next 15 days and keep track of not just how others respond, but how creating with your own voice feels.

It could feel overwhelming and open the floodgates to self-criticism, it could get overlooked and a video you make may get low engagement, but I want you to try it anyway to exercise the muscle of being unapologetically you.

For me, radical authenticity revolves around creating and learning, my two favourite things, so for the next 15 days I am going to create something imperfectly every day based on my unfiltered thoughts and feelings and I am going to try to learn something new too. Rather than focusing my learning on what I think could be useful or what I should do to upskill myself, I am going to entertain my list of side quests instead.

If you are still reading this, I want you to do this with me. How can you be radically authentic every day for the next 15 days?

It doesn’t have to revolve around learning and creating like it does for me, but I have created this Notion template for you to fill out. It has space for you to include what bold authentic action you took, how it made you feel and whether any lucky moments or synchronicities appeared.

Here is the link to the notion template : https://trusted-note-ecc.notion.site/15-days-of-radical-authenticity-380b7f85b00280798f53ed68fdb8efd0?pvs=74

I will be back at the end of the month to report back on whether radical authenticity is really the best strategy.

Try it with me and we can debrief.

Hi, I’m Maahika :)

I’m an entrepreneur, writer and podcast host currently building my “rich aunt lore”. I’m the founder of Empower Sounds Media and host of Reclaiming Bossy, listened to in 65+ countries. I’m also one of the UK’s Top 100 Female Founders and a UK Ambassador for Inspiring Girls.

Welcome to Bossy Behind the Scenes, a place where we build our bold and bossy lives, businesses and everything in between.

As a free subscriber, we explore the internal world through essays and reflections on what I’m experiencing, questioning and figuring out as I build my own life, leaving you with questions to explore what you want yours to look and feel like too.

As a paid subscriber, we build the external world. I ungatekeep the practical frameworks, advice and resources I use to build my own life and business, alongside everything I’m learning from the brilliant founders, creators and experts I interview on Reclaiming Bossy. Plus recommendations, travel finds, my Opportunity Radar and, of course, all the juicy rich aunt lore I collect along the way.

Come build your boldest and bossiest life with us <3

Want to work together?

→ Creator/Founder/ Bossy Office Hours: Starting out in your career or building something of your own? Bring me your ideas, questions or the thing you’re stuck on, and we’ll turn it into an actionable plan.

→ Building a business or brand: I work with founders, brands and organisations through Empower Sounds Media on storytelling, personal branding, content and communications. Book a Strategy Session, Discovery Call or join the next Storytelling Sprint.

Besos xox,

Maahika

Yesterday I felt so tired and overwhelmed that I couldn’t get out of bed for the whole day. It wasn’t just physical fatigue, but more of an existential exhaustion that I had been ignoring for some time. Through having a podcast and interviewing many successful people, I knew I wasn’t alone and that this was something every twenty-something person intentionally trying to build their life and career faced from time to time: a wave of anxiety that washes over you with loud questions like, Where do I want to live? What do I want to do? Who do I want to be?

I’ve felt this more and more recently as the lease for my apartment, the place I’ve called home for the last two years, comes to an end in less than a month. The feeling of starting over, whilst exciting, is deeply terrifying.

This home saw me go from student to founder. It saw me through my first big heartbreak, friendship breakups, and many life changes. It wasn’t the first time I had said goodbye to a place I called home. Having changed flats four times in the past five years, and homes many more times growing up, change and moving on felt familiar. But this time I had absolutely no clue what was next. I knew I would move back to my parents’ home for some time, but beyond that I was uncertain.

This blank canvas gives me the opportunity to design the “best-case scenario”, but as someone who grew up as an optimiser, I felt this anxiety around making the “right choice”.

Funnily enough, I felt this way when I was first moving into this house. I had just returned from a year in Spain, where I had created a community and a fresh life. I was full of anxiety about what was next as I entered my final year of university and got rejected from job after job.

I felt lonely in a city I had once called home. I didn’t feel like I fit in with some of my friends anymore, and others had graduated and left. I felt too tired to start afresh. I remember coming back to London for the first time after many months and crying on the Tube. I sat there dramatically crying as I explained to my family that I felt out of place and had no idea what I was going to do next.

What came next was beyond my imagination.After getting rejected from a job with a charity I thought I was a perfect fit for, I decided to stop looking for jobs and try doing my own thing instead. I found a free programme at my university that helped students develop business ideas into structured plans, and in my final year, whilst finishing my studies, I started learning how to build a business. After completing not one but two business programmes alongside my degree, I decided to take a risk and launch my own digital media and communications agency to help businesses with their content and personal brands.

Fast forward, and that idea unlocked opportunities and invitations I could never have predicted: visits to Google, the House of Lords, and even a box at Arsenal Stadium.I started to fall back in love with London too, making bucket lists and going on adventures. I tried to bring back some of the magic I had found in Madrid and the excitement of exploring a new city into a familiar but largely unexplored place. Brick by brick, day by day, two years later I can confidently say I built a life wilder and more delicious than I could have imagined.

But now it’s time to move on. Move home, maybe move abroad, maybe move back to London. Who knows?

I don’t know what’s next and, whilst I’m making plans and vision boards, I’m scared it won’t be enough. Every time I open my phone, I feel like I could or should have done more by this point. I worry that I haven’t created enough opportunities for the future. Whilst in my rational mind I know that idea is absurd, I still feel scared and tired at the thought of starting again with new routines and a new space.

As I take the pictures and postcards off the walls and slowly pack up my things, I remind myself that even this room wasn’t decorated overnight. The space that became my little world was built through tiny moments, memories, and individual ornaments hung on the walls day by day.

In the same way that this apartment didn’t become home overnight, the next chapter isn’t going to immediately feel easy or comfortable. But I’m reminding myself that’s the best bit. When I first moved into this house, I was too tired to create a plan for world domination. Instead, I gave myself the time and space to come up with new ideas and slowly act on them. I’m taking that ability with me wherever I go next.

I’m taking my creativity, my skills, and my network with me. So I’m not actually starting from scratch, I’m just turning the page.

The thing about turning points is that they never feel that pivotal when you’re standing in them. They feel like confusion, cardboard boxes, unfinished plans, and unanswered questions. They feel like staring at a blank page and wishing you already knew the ending.But every chapter of my life that I now look back on fondly once began as a question mark.

Every time I have been convinced that I didn’t know what was next, life has surprised me. The opportunities, friendships, adventures, and plot twists that shaped the last few years of my life were things I could never have planned for, no matter how hard I tried. They came slowly through small moments and acting on inspiration.

So instead of forcing myself to have all the answers immediately, I’m trying to allow myself to sit in the unknown and remember that the unfolding is often the best part of the story.Maybe this chapter won’t look anything like the one before it. That is probably the point. I’m not putting pressure on myself to have all the answers. For now, I’m packing up the postcards, taking the pictures off the walls, and trusting that whatever comes next will eventually be better than I could have imagined too.

Hi, I’m Maahika :)

I’m an entrepreneur, writer and podcast host currently building my “rich aunt lore”. I’m the founder of Empower Sounds Media and host of Reclaiming Bossy, listened to in 65+ countries. I’m also one of the UK’s Top 100 Female Founders and a UK Ambassador for Inspiring Girls.

Welcome to Bossy Behind the Scenes, a place where we build our bold and bossy lives, businesses and everything in between.

As a free subscriber, we explore the internal world through essays and reflections on what I’m experiencing, questioning and figuring out as I build my own life, leaving you with questions to explore what you want yours to look and feel like too.

As a paid subscriber, we build the external world. I ungatekeep the practical frameworks, advice and resources I use to build my own life and business, alongside everything I’m learning from the brilliant founders, creators and experts I interview on Reclaiming Bossy. Plus recommendations, travel finds, my Opportunity Radar and, of course, all the juicy rich aunt lore I collect along the way.

Come build your boldest and bossiest life with us <3

Want to work together?

→ Creator/Founder/ Bossy Office Hours: Starting out in your career or building something of your own? Bring me your ideas, questions or the thing you’re stuck on, and we’ll turn it into an actionable plan.

→ Building a business or brand: I work with founders, brands and organisations through Empower Sounds Media on storytelling, personal branding, content and communications. Book a Strategy Session, Discovery Call or join the next Storytelling Sprint.

Besos xox,

Maahika

As cringe as it sounds, I truly believe that enjoying your own company is an art. Growing up, I used to always crave community, and preferred constantly meeting new people, seeing friends, and having plans. I remember when I was in my first year of university, I would try and go out almost every night, not because I loved the bars and clubs, but because I hated being alone. It was boring, understimulating, and gave space for me to hear my anxious and uncomfortable thoughts.

Eventually, I surrounded myself with so much stimulus that it became impossible for me to hear the sound of my own voice and what I actually wanted. That meant that I had to relearn what those things were by actively experiencing what I categorically didn’t want. After some nasty experiences, I decided to set myself a challenge called “No Plan Mondays.”

Mondays were a day I didn’t have classes at university, so I decided I would start every week by not making any social plans and instead using that time to focus on quality time with myself and pursuing projects that I had been procrastinating on. It sounds easy enough, but as someone who was constantly out and meeting people, a whole day alone felt weirdly uncomfortable.

Initially, I would always have music and podcasts on in the background as they made me feel less alone. But slowly, I started to replace that background noise with intentional silence, and eventually that silence was filled with thoughts of creative projects I wanted to try, experiences I wanted to have, ideas, and inspiration.

It was unfamiliar at first, being able to hear my own inner monologue after so long, and I wasn’t quite sure if I could trust it. But the more I listened to it, tried new things, went out alone, and started random side quests, the louder it got.

When I turned 20, I moved to Spain for a year. It was the year I feel I turned from girl to woman, not just because I left my bubble and started a new life in an entirely different language and country, but because I did it alone. Having done “No Plan Mondays” for a year, I decided I was ready to live alone to build self-trust and deepen my ability to enjoy my own company.

It was the best year of my life.

I am not going to lie; there were times when I would be by myself at home and feel lonely, but I realised that being lonely and being happy were not mutually exclusive.

Growing up Indian, I had unknowingly absorbed the idea that being alone was the ultimate punishment. Indian culture is deeply community-based, and the metaphorical “stick” used to scare people into behaving was to say, “What would people think or say?” or “If you don’t have children and a husband, you will die alone.” Whilst these are things my parents never directly said, it was something I had picked up through cultural messaging, and for many years I was so afraid of being alone that I hadn’t realised it could also be incredibly liberating.

After experiencing, surviving, and even enjoying loneliness, I started to do more things alone: travel alone, eat alone, and go to concerts alone. Over time, I started to become the kind of person who needs alone time to recharge and process my thoughts and feelings.

I stopped treating alone time as the in-between space where I ran errands or waited for my next interaction with others and instead treated it as an occasion of its own.

I think this played a big part in my growing confidence over the past few years. Now, I like to spend intentional time by myself doing things I love. I dress up, I go and explore both my city and others, I write, I paint, I dance, I eat, and every time I do, it makes me feel special that I took the time to enjoy my own company a little more.

For me, the art of alone time is putting as much effort into creating memories and experiences with yourself as you do with other people.

There are many ways you can do this. One of my favourites recently is making summer bucket lists like I did when I was a child. They are a mix of activities and experiences, but also projects I have been procrastinating on. Whilst self-love on social media is often shown as taking bubble baths or doing face masks, for me it is actually doing something that scares but excites me a little.

This can be as simple as going to the beach alone (which I did today), or starting that business, side hustle, or hobby.

Now, I usually make my plans alone first, and then if I want to, I invite other people to join me. It’s a balancing act, though. Part of the art of alone time is knowing when to stop before it turns into isolation and avoidance. I was guilty of this. The more time I spent alone, the more comfortable or maybe even lazy I got when it came to making plans with friends. I would sometimes procrastinate on it, not due to a lack of love, but because being alone had become more comfortable.

Every time I do spend time with someone I love, I remember why cultivating and investing in your relationships is so important. The Goldilocks spot is different for everyone, and the amount of alone time you need to feel at peace will fluctuate. But something that helps me is actually scheduling blocks in every week for myself that are non-negotiable. This is not the time I spend alone while sleeping, cooking, or cleaning, but time where I can be truly present with myself.

If, like me, you struggled or still find it hard to be alone, I’m telling you that it is possible that one day you will like and actually even crave your own company.

When you get to that point, you develop a confidence where you no longer feel the need to spend time and energy in situations and with people that drain you simply because you are scared to be alone.

If that feels like a faraway possibility, start small. Create whatever your version of “No Plan Monday” is. It could be an evening a week or even less, but book in some time to try that thing you have always wanted to do and go alone.

I promise you that the more you do it, the more confidence you will build. I went from being the girl who couldn’t sit still by herself for more than a few minutes to writing this in a café in Athens, sat by myself after spending the whole day doing things that bring me joy.

So take this as your sign to make a bucket list of things you can do alone and start ticking it off.

Hi, I’m Maahika :)

I’m an entrepreneur, writer and podcast host currently building my “rich aunt lore”. I’m the founder of Empower Sounds Media and host of Reclaiming Bossy, listened to in 65+ countries. I’m also one of the UK’s Top 100 Female Founders and a UK Ambassador for Inspiring Girls.

Welcome to Bossy Behind the Scenes, a place where we build our bold and bossy lives, businesses and everything in between.

As a free subscriber, we explore the internal world through essays and reflections on what I’m experiencing, questioning and figuring out as I build my own life, leaving you with questions to explore what you want yours to look and feel like too.

As a paid subscriber, we build the external world. I ungatekeep the practical frameworks, advice and resources I use to build my own life and business, alongside everything I’m learning from the brilliant founders, creators and experts I interview on Reclaiming Bossy. Plus recommendations, travel finds, my Opportunity Radar and, of course, all the juicy rich aunt lore I collect along the way.

Come build your boldest and bossiest life with us <3

Want to work together?

→ Creator/Founder/ Bossy Office Hours: Starting out in your career or building something of your own? Bring me your ideas, questions or the thing you’re stuck on, and we’ll turn it into an actionable plan.

→ Building a business or brand: I work with founders, brands and organisations through Empower Sounds Media on storytelling, personal branding, content and communications. Book a Strategy Session, Discovery Call or join the next Storytelling Sprint.

Besos xox,

Maahika

Miracle May was an experiment I started this past month. It was simple, all I did was declare that May was the month of miracles, and that I was a magnet for positive experiences, wholesome interactions, and unimaginable opportunities. This is something I would repeat so casually and frequently that I started to believe it fully, and therefore my reality started to reflect it.

It sounds stupidly simple, but it was effective. As a type A, goal setting, list-making girl, I thought the best opportunities came through effort. If you worked hard and manifested harder, then you could get everything you wanted. This month, however, taught me that not every wonderful thing in life needs to be earned, but you do have to develop the ability to observe opportunities everywhere in a noisy and overwhelming world.

It is less of an effort thing and more of an identity shift; the more you believe that you are the type of person for whom miracles are a regular occurrence, the more it will start to happen. This is what TikTok calls “lucky girl syndrome”, and the principle is the same. We have around 60,000 thoughts a day, 90–95% of which are the same as they were the previous day. What would happen if you added a positive script to that daily dialogue?

Read more

I often hear people complain about how making friends after university, in your 20s, and in big cities like London, is really difficult and draining. This has never been my experience and growing up I was the strange child that would go and speak to random people on the tube and people always end up starting conversations with me whether it be the cute grandma at the grocery store or the girl’s girl in the club bathroom.

I understand why London life can be lonely, often people have crammed calendars and work schedules. The idea of spontaneous plans or new friendships, whilst exciting, is exhausting for most. Many people have their existing social groups from work and school, so talking to new people seems unimportant. Add on top of that the fact that everyone is in a rush, to get somewhere, do something, and be productive. Between work, gym, balancing relationships, cleaning your house, texting your mom and buying groceries, new friends and talking to strangers sounds like the last thing most people would want to do.

That is what makes random acts of presence and connection incredibly special in an overwhelming and often lonely city. This shouldn’t feel like an extra thing on an excessively long to-do list but a mode that you can switch on and off in the mundane in-between moments of life. I have made some of the best friendships and fondest memories through unexpected conversations in random but ordinary places, the coworking table at a coffee shop, the queue for an event, a grocery store, the train. This isn’t something I do every day with everyone, nor is it something you should do all the time because the reality is you will never be able to meet every single cool person out there in the world. However, in the in-between moments between the hustle and bustle of city life and my colour coordinated calendar I find that conversations with new people especially when there is zero pressure on any outcome can be such an energising way to feel joy.

This happened to me recently. It was the first sunny day of the year and London became alive again; after working for a few hours in my favourite coffee shop, I decided to spontaneously try a new spot for dinner and go to the Kurdish market around the corner. Strutting along the sunlit streets in my snakeskin boots, I pretended like I was in a music video romanticising my life. To my embarrassment, this American guy walked in whilst I was mid lip-sync into my camera. “Shit I hope he didn’t see me do that” I thought to myself, but then I reminded myself it’s not that serious. We sat side by side waiting for our food and he started talking to the lady about his ‘too good to go’ bag. “I got one too” I said. It was as simple as that. That tiny comment sparked a conversation about it being our first time trying Kurdish food, and then what we had spent the first sunny day of the year doing, which then turned into a conversation about the cool creative projects we were working on. I told him that I was planning to eat alone outside in the sun and asked if he wanted to join, we ended up having a picnic on the side of the street. Whilst exchanging anecdotes, a girl walked past us and asked if our food was good and if we recommended the spot. Uncharacteristically, for a Londoner, I offered if she wanted to try some, which resulted in her getting her own and joining us in our street picnic.

The Kurdish Market Picnic

This “meet cute” story, whilst adorable, isn’t unique. Being brave and speaking to strangers again and again has massively helped me with growing my business and meeting aligned people who gave me opportunities that I couldn’t have foreseen. Importantly, I don’t seek this out or go into the interaction with an agenda but instead with curiosity and detachment. There have been many times where I will have a fascinating conversation and never see the person again nor exchange contact details but the times where we click have been some of the biggest plot twists and turning points in my life.

If striking up conversations with complete and total strangers with no context is scary but you still want to leave your bubble and have new experiences I recommend going to events in your city. If you live in London like me, you are lucky because there are a wealth of events from music events like concerts, jams, DJ sets and gigs to business events and hackathons and supper clubs and sip and paints and walking clubs, a good starting place to find them is on Luma and Partiful, but you can also check out Dice and Eventbrite.

Events can also be overwhelming especially after a long day of work so if you want something a bit more chill my number one advice is to go work, journal, read and sit in coffee shops. Especially the lounge-style ones or ones with massive coworking tables, often sharing spaces like these can foster spontaneous conversations. The cowork table at a cute café is where I met the graphic designer who made my company logo, it was where I met a sexologist who helped me get my first paid speaking opportunity and it is where I have met countless interesting people for my podcast. Again this is not me telling you to completely ignore your work and responsibility and spend all day chatting to random people but when you open yourself up to organic and open conversations it drastically increases the surface area of your luck.

One of my fav coffee shops :)

When I reflect on some of my fondest memories, they have come from serendipitous moments like this and if you are feeling lost, lonely or sad, I believe this is a method to infuse some more magic into your day to day. I hope you take this as your sign to take risks, talk to strangers and go on more adventures. If you want to do it together, come join this bossy corner of the internet and tell me your craziest “meet cute” story.

Hi, I’m Maahika :)

I’m an entrepreneur, writer and podcast host currently building my “rich aunt lore”. I’m the founder of Empower Sounds Media and host of Reclaiming Bossy, listened to in 65+ countries. I’m also one of the UK’s Top 100 Female Founders and a UK Ambassador for Inspiring Girls.

Welcome to Bossy Behind the Scenes, a place where we build our bold and bossy lives, businesses and everything in between.

As a free subscriber, we explore the internal world through essays and reflections on what I’m experiencing, questioning and figuring out as I build my own life, leaving you with questions to explore what you want yours to look and feel like too.

As a paid subscriber, we build the external world. I ungatekeep the practical frameworks, advice and resources I use to build my own life and business, alongside everything I’m learning from the brilliant founders, creators and experts I interview on Reclaiming Bossy. Plus recommendations, travel finds, my Opportunity Radar and, of course, all the juicy rich aunt lore I collect along the way.

Come build your boldest and bossiest life with us <3

Want to work together?

→ Creator/Founder/ Bossy Office Hours: Starting out in your career or building something of your own? Bring me your ideas, questions or the thing you’re stuck on, and we’ll turn it into an actionable plan.

→ Building a business or brand: I work with founders, brands and organisations through Empower Sounds Media on storytelling, personal branding, content and communications. Book a Strategy Session, Discovery Call or join the next Storytelling Sprint.

Besos xox,

Maahika

Have you ever worried that everyone secretly hates you and finds you annoying?

This is a fear I carried for so many years: the feeling of being unlikeable. Every time I posted an Instagram post, shared an opinion, or communicated a boundary, I thought people resented me. The idea of taking up space felt liberating but also lonely because staying nice, likeable and the same felt safe. As I’ve got older, I’ve become more and more specific and weird. Overdressing everywhere, starting a podcast and then a business, living alone, travelling alone. I felt like I had a strong sense of the bold and brilliant person I was becoming, but my anxiety that everyone watching was judging me always rang like annoying background noise.

Every time I checked who viewed my story, I imagined people saying, “Who does she think she is?”

I wasn’t always this self conscious though, when I was younger, I used to be a super loud and dramatic child. The kind of girl who always performed in school plays and musicals and would go up to random strangers on holiday and make friends. But being a young girl with big opinions, feelings and dreams wasn’t always something that felt allowed. I remember once being on a school trip when I was really young. We were standing at a bus station and all the girls were in a circle. As soon as I went to join them, the popular, Regina George-esque girl said, “Put your hand up if you hate Maahika.”

I froze like a deer in headlights and watched every single girl put their hand up. Slowly, even the ones I had barely spoken to. That night I was assigned to the same dorm room as them and pretended to be asleep while I heard them talk about how ugly and weird I was.

Now that was more than ten years ago, and I know kids can be unnecessarily mean, but that sinking feeling is one I carried in a small crevice in my chest for years. It’s a feeling that becomes loud again after I accomplish something or feel good or proud of myself. It feels so familiar that I forget it’s completely unreflective of my life now and that I’m actually surrounded by incredible friends, family and supporters.

I was reminded of this yesterday when I went to a friend’s birthday party and saw people from university that I hadn’t seen in over three years. I felt anxiety rise when people asked me about my podcast and business and I felt the urge to deflect questions and attention, but I was humbled by the kindness of every person I spoke to.

Almost everyone I spoke to told me they had seen a post, a video or a podcast episode and that they felt proud of me, excited for me or curious about what I was up to. I didn’t realise they were watching and I definitely didn’t expect them to be rooting for me. With every interaction I felt more emotional because it reminded me that when you are your most authentic self, you create space for the right people to find you. Yes, not everyone will like the way you dress, talk, think or act. But the people who are looking for you can’t find you if you’re busy being someone else.

On my way home from the party, I was sitting on the tube and an older woman was staring at me. I immediately thought she was judging me for wearing a short dress, but then she smiled and told me she liked my outfit. It felt like confirmation. A little sign to let go of the belief that everyone was judging me.

I know I’m not alone in this feeling. So many people never start the project they’ve always wanted to, move to the city that excites them or date the person they secretly have a crush on because they’re scared of being judged.

I used to pride myself on doing the thing anyway despite the fear, hate and judgement, but now I wonder… what if most people are actually rooting for you?

What if you’ve spent so long focusing on the one negative comment, weird look or mean girl from school that you’ve turned a blind eye to all the love, affection and opportunity coming your way?

Growing up in an Indian household, I was warned about the evil eye, “nazar”. I know many cultures have versions of this idea that other people’s judgement, jealousy or discontent can harm you. But I’m choosing to let go of that fear. Instead, I want to imagine that everyone looking at me is admiring or respecting me rather than judging me. The reality is it changes nothing externally, but internally it is a game changer.

It’s only been a few days since I made this mindset shift, but it has allowed me to act on inspiration and ideas with an unfathomable amount of confidence. I feel like for the first time in a LONG time I’m swimming with the current instead of against it.

So if you’ve ever felt judged, felt cringe or felt the urge to stay small and safe, ask yourself: How would you act if you knew the people watching were actually cheering you on?

If you are still reading this, I am rooting for you and reminding you it’s time to let the ghosts of Christmas past get out of your head. I hope this gives you the confidence and courage to build a bolder, bossier and more delicious life, come join me if you want to do it together.

Hi, I’m Maahika :)

I’m an entrepreneur, writer and podcast host currently building my “rich aunt lore”. I’m the founder of Empower Sounds Media and host of Reclaiming Bossy, listened to in 65+ countries. I’m also one of the UK’s Top 100 Female Founders and a UK Ambassador for Inspiring Girls.

Welcome to Bossy Behind the Scenes, a place where we build our bold and bossy lives, businesses and everything in between.

As a free subscriber, we explore the internal world through essays and reflections on what I’m experiencing, questioning and figuring out as I build my own life, leaving you with questions to explore what you want yours to look and feel like too.

As a paid subscriber, we build the external world. I ungatekeep the practical frameworks, advice and resources I use to build my own life and business, alongside everything I’m learning from the brilliant founders, creators and experts I interview on Reclaiming Bossy. Plus recommendations, travel finds, my Opportunity Radar and, of course, all the juicy rich aunt lore I collect along the way.

Come build your boldest and bossiest life with us <3

Want to work together?

→ Creator/Founder/ Bossy Office Hours: Starting out in your career or building something of your own? Bring me your ideas, questions or the thing you’re stuck on, and we’ll turn it into an actionable plan.

→ Building a business or brand: I work with founders, brands and organisations through Empower Sounds Media on storytelling, personal branding, content and communications. Book a Strategy Session, Discovery Call or join the next Storytelling Sprint.

Besos xox,

Maahika

I like to think of myself as a disgustingly confident person, but this is not something I was born with. I spent most of my teenage years chasing attention, validation and praise. I changed my name, my style, my voice and every little thing about myself to be more likeable. Thankfully, I eventually realised that no matter how hard you work, or how nice you are, or how much you do for others, you can never make every single person happy.

So instead of asking for permission and seeking validation from your friends, family and flings, what would life look like if you learned to self-validate and give yourself permission to do the scary thing?

This is a question I asked myself after being the “cool, fun, nice, popular, pretty” girl and having a complete and total mental breakdown, as I felt like I was being pulled in so many directions. I asked myself for the first time, “What do I actually like?” “What do I really want?” “What do I value?” My inability to answer these questions at first highlighted to me how much I had used everyone else’s metrics to calibrate my understanding of achievement, success and fulfilment.

I decided to give myself permission to experiment and to try new things that I knew I would be bad at to begin with. I knew that the nagging feeling of embarrassment, but excitement, was the sign that I needed to start something. I felt this feeling for the first time when I was 19 and decided to start a podcast. Whilst I had started a YouTube channel when I was 15, I got embarrassed and anxious about what people would say and think, and then deleted it. This time, I decided it would be different. I told myself that no matter how cringe it is, I am going to do it and devote all my love, time and energy into it as if it is already a success. That decision changed my life…

It gave me the confidence to go and speak to people many steps ahead of me in their careers and businesses, it gave me the skills to understand how to iterate and improve, and it taught me the patience that you need when building something with intention. Almost three years later, the little podcast I started in my bedroom with £3 pink wired headphones is now a podcast produced in a studio with a production team. We have done international seasons and have listeners in 65 countries.

Despite all of this, if I am honest, the follower count is still a lot lower than I would want. And truthfully, if I went back in time and told my 19-year-old self that even after three years of effort and embarrassment we still haven’t become rich and famous, maybe I would have hesitated to start.

Instead of external accolades, however, the last three years have taught me how to build unshakeable confidence, discipline and faith. Starting something without evidence that it will work is one of the most vulnerable but powerful things you can do in life. And whilst we often start the passion project with the end goal and dream outcome in mind, the most rewarding part of it is the person we become along the way.

Starting my podcast at 19 gave me the courage to move abroad at 20 and live alone and build a life in a completely different language and culture from scratch. It gave me the belief that I could start a business at 21 with no money, no experience and a really small network. Fast forward, and I now get invited into rooms I didn’t even know existed a few years ago and get a seat at tables that I never thought I would be able to access. Some of these include being invited to the House of Lords not once but twice, being named one of the UK’s top 100 female founders and watching the Arsenal women’s game from a box in the Emirates Stadium.

Having attended the cool events and gotten the amazing opportunities, I now realise that these moments were not the cause of my confidence, but a symptom of it. If I had waited to feel confident, I would have never taken the first step in any of the endeavours that have shaped my life and career.

So what is the secret to unstoppable confidence? It is super simple. Confidence is built on evidence, and evidence is accumulated through consistent and imperfect action. The most confident and successful people you know are no better than you. They are not smarter, more talented or even more worthy. They have just taken enough action steps, often ones you don’t see because they happen behind the scenes, that they have built inevitable momentum around their ideas, passion and message. So instead of waiting for confirmation or an excuse to take that bold action, know that the applause you crave is coming, and it is a consequence of your confidence, not the cause.

If this gave you the shot of confidence and delusion I hope it did, please comment below: what is the one scary step you are going to take today?

Hi, I’m Maahika :)

I’m an entrepreneur, writer and podcast host currently building my “rich aunt lore”. I’m the founder of Empower Sounds Media and host of Reclaiming Bossy, listened to in 65+ countries. I’m also one of the UK’s Top 100 Female Founders and a UK Ambassador for Inspiring Girls.

Welcome to Bossy Behind the Scenes, a place where we build our bold and bossy lives, businesses and everything in between.

As a free subscriber, we explore the internal world through essays and reflections on what I’m experiencing, questioning and figuring out as I build my own life, leaving you with questions to explore what you want yours to look and feel like too.

As a paid subscriber, we build the external world. I ungatekeep the practical frameworks, advice and resources I use to build my own life and business, alongside everything I’m learning from the brilliant founders, creators and experts I interview on Reclaiming Bossy. Plus recommendations, travel finds, my Opportunity Radar and, of course, all the juicy rich aunt lore I collect along the way.

Come build your boldest and bossiest life with us <3

Want to work together?

→ Creator/Founder/ Bossy Office Hours: Starting out in your career or building something of your own? Bring me your ideas, questions or the thing you’re stuck on, and we’ll turn it into an actionable plan.

→ Building a business or brand: I work with founders, brands and organisations through Empower Sounds Media on storytelling, personal branding, content and communications. Book a Strategy Session, Discovery Call or join the next Storytelling Sprint.

Besos xox,

Maahika

The biggest gift you can give yourself is learning the skill and the art of the upward spiral.

My biggest achievement in my life so far was not starting a business from scratch whilst graduating university top of my class, or learning Spanish from 0 to fluent, or even starting a podcast that is now listened to in 65 countries globally. It is that I physically cannot stay in a bad mood for more than 3 hours at a time.

Now, this is not something I was born with. I spent most of my teenage years struggling with poor mental health, and a bad day would often turn into a bad week, occasionally a bad month, and sometimes even a bad season of my life. I felt like my feelings dictated me and that I was the passenger princess watching the car crash happen. It took many years of trial and error, some therapy, lots of journaling, and a few very supportive friends for me to learn that I was not, in fact, a hostage to my negative feelings and thoughts.

A friend once told me that the fact that you are able to identify your negative thoughts inherently proves that you are separate from them. It is like being in a museum and staring at a particularly ugly painting that is part of the collection. Whilst you may not be able to throw all the paintings out of your mental museum, you can decide which sections you want to sit in, which parts you want to observe, and what bits you feel resonate most deeply with you.

Aside from learning to separate yourself from your thoughts, learning that it is possible to change your feelings is something I wish we all learned in school.

If you are on the wellness and healing side of the internet, I’m sure you have heard of the “power of a regulated nervous system”. Whilst this is important, sometimes I feel like the internet puts pressure on us to conceal, hide, and erase all negative feelings and emotions.

So instead of avoiding feeling unhappy all the time, I find accepting that it is inevitable and then focusing on all the various remedies I can add into my life to bring back peace, joy, and positivity is much easier. Now, let’s talk about the art of the upward spiral and the easiest ways to get yourself out of a funk, flop era, or feeling sorry for yourself.

Just like we are often acutely aware of the things that make us stressed, angry, anxious, or irritated, I think it is essential to know what things, people, and experiences can trigger a sense of joy, relief, and peace. These are called “happy triggers”, and they don’t have to be expensive or complicated. Often, simply feeding the ducks in the park or wearing a nice outfit are small things you can add into your days to feel better.

Now, I’m not saying that a sweet treat is going to solve all your problems, but having a go-to list of different types of activities, objects, and people that make you feel good is something that every person should have. It sounds stupidly simple, but I find that when we are exhausted, anxious, or feeling crappy, it is hard to know what to do. Having an almost menu-like list of things you can add into your day makes it super easy. This is super personal and will vary from person to person, but here are some of my happy triggers to give you some ideas and inspiration.

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I find that it is a huge part of dating culture in London too with “lets get a drink” often translating to “lets go on a date”. Often, I find the best dates are not the ones where you just go to a bar and get overpriced cocktails but instead get more creative.

I feel sometimes drink dates follow social scripts that are best boring and sometimes boundary blurring so I often prefer to mix it up and try other alternative activities.

Last year I decided to do one year without drinking for health reasons and to save money (admittedly I got to September and decided a more balanced approach would make me feel better).

I also decided to start taking dating a bit more seriously. I decided to go on one date every week with the intention of making more time and space for relationships, dating and fun.

I wasn’t looking for the one, but I found that if I ever want anything in my life it is as simple as making space and time for it so this challenge felt exciting.

As I wasn’t drinking when I started, it allowed me to explore my city and try new things and I loved it. I also ended up meeting my ex-boyfriend through this challenge so I can testify that treating your life like an adventurous rom com can be rewarding.

For anyone who is bored of the same old drink date, here are 9 of my favourite activity dates. This doesn’t just have to be romantic date plans but also makes for great solo dates, things to do when your international besties visit your city or when you just want to get out of your routine.

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That idea really resonated with me as someone who has grown up living in different countries, changing accents, assimilating, and creating a tapestry of identity and belonging too complex to concisely answer the “where are you from” question I often get asked. No answer feels fully correct. Whilst my parents are Indian and that is where I was born, it feels like an incomplete answer. My favourite ways to answer this question range from “do you want the long story or the short story” to “guess” or “I’m Dora”. Sitting here, surrounded by people from every corner of the world, hearing voices, accents, insults in different languages, I feel more belonging here than within the borders and boundaries of a country or a postcode.

Growing up, I balanced the shame of not feeling Indian enough but simultaneously knowing that I would also always be too brown to be seen fully as anything else. I find it so interesting that often the way we look introduces us before we even have a chance to open our mouth and contradict or complicate the story. I remember when I lived in Spain, despite feeling the most profound sense of belonging that I have ever experienced in my life to the community I had built, I would often walk down the street and hear people holler “Morena”, “India”, and have people ask me where I am “really” from.

In my experience, asking someone where they are really from is not malicious but mere laziness. It is easier to categorise a bullet point answer than to read between the lines. I remember in my last relationship trying to explain to my previous partner, who grew up in one place his whole life and consequently centred his identity around his hometown, community, and country, that I was “both and neither” Indian nor British or any of the other places and identities that I picked up throughout my life. I wasn’t rooted but anchored, and that anchor moved with me wherever I went. He would ask me to choose and say I wasn’t Indian and that people could probably tell when I went back that I wasn’t from there. That used to hurt me because it rang true. I wasn’t “just” Indian, so where was I from?

This is why I love this idea that the greatest nation in the world is the imagination, one that can transcend simple boxes of borders and boundaries, but one where belonging is rooted in values, purpose, and passion rather than race, religion, and language.

It is why I decided to make Reclaiming Bossy, my podcast, an international one this year, taking my little microphones around the world to hear diverse narratives about how to construct a life, career, and business. It is why I adore learning languages and taught myself Spanish and am now trying to learn Portuguese, French, and as many more as I can. It is why I love living in London because it is one of the only places I feel that you can be from everywhere and meet people from every walk of life, try every type of food, listen to every genre of music, and meet people who you otherwise wouldn’t meet. People often say London is lonely, cold, and harsh, but that has never been my experience as someone who has made a point to go on several adventures around the city, talk to strangers, and leave my bubble.

With everything happening in the world, war, genocide, famine, chaos, it takes great courage and imagination to picture a world where curiosity overcomes bias and where exploration overcomes assumption. Instead of feeling anxious, insecure, or unrooted about not being from one place, we can celebrate the power that comes from having diverse experiences and exposure to new people, languages, and cultures.

My challenge to anyone still reading this is to ask better questions, not “where are you really from”, to not make assumptions based on someone, and to not oversimplify issues to make them easier to engage with, and to step out of their bubble more. Can you arrange your community as a kaleidoscope of people with different ideas, experiences, and stories?

These are questions I urge you to think about, bonus points if you do over coffee in Palestine House or somewhere else that is outside of your bubble…

*me, my book and my orange blossom coffee in Palestine house writing this lil essay

Instead of shrinking yourself and others to fit in and belong, can you expand your world so there is enough space for you and others with their complex identities, stories, and experiences.

Hi, I’m Maahika :)

I’m an entrepreneur, writer and podcast host currently building my “rich aunt lore”. I’m the founder of Empower Sounds Media and host of Reclaiming Bossy, listened to in 65+ countries. I’m also one of the UK’s Top 100 Female Founders and a UK Ambassador for Inspiring Girls.

Welcome to Bossy Behind the Scenes, a place where we build our bold and bossy lives, businesses and everything in between.

As a free subscriber, we explore the internal world through essays and reflections on what I’m experiencing, questioning and figuring out as I build my own life, leaving you with questions to explore what you want yours to look and feel like too.

As a paid subscriber, we build the external world. I ungatekeep the practical frameworks, advice and resources I use to build my own life and business, alongside everything I’m learning from the brilliant founders, creators and experts I interview on Reclaiming Bossy. Plus recommendations, travel finds, my Opportunity Radar and, of course, all the juicy rich aunt lore I collect along the way.

Come build your boldest and bossiest life with us <3

Want to work together?

→ Creator/Founder/ Bossy Office Hours: Starting out in your career or building something of your own? Bring me your ideas, questions or the thing you’re stuck on, and we’ll turn it into an actionable plan.

→ Building a business or brand: I work with founders, brands and organisations through Empower Sounds Media on storytelling, personal branding, content and communications. Book a Strategy Session, Discovery Call or join the next Storytelling Sprint.

Besos xox,

Maahika

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I absolutely hate the phrase “Girl Math.” It’s framed as playful and humorous, and I get why people find it entertaining, but it also subtly diminishes the agency that women have around personal finance.

At its core, “Girl Math” frames women irrational and unserious when it comes to money. Even if it is irony, it normalises a narrative that has historically excluded women from financial systems and decision-making. This becomes more concerning when you consider the structural realities women already face: globally, over 2.7 billion women are legally restricted from having the same choice of jobs as men. In 69 economies, laws still constrain women’s ability to work, and 43 economies have no legal protections against sexual harassment in the workplace. Only 1.8% of venture capital funding goes to women-led startups, and the gender pay gap remains at around 11.4% across OECD countries. In that context, reducing women’s financial behaviour to a joke feels less harmless and more disempowering.

Women were only allowed to open bank accounts in 1974 in the UK, which is the year my mum was born, so the reality is that many of us are the first generation of women in our families to have the opportunity to be entirely financially independent. Whilst I am not at this point yet, it’s something I am working towards, like many twenty-something girls.

I also think our relationship with money is far more emotional than we like to admit. In many ways, it mirrors our attachment styles. Some people avoid looking at their finances altogether, creating distance from something that feels overwhelming. Others become anxious, checking constantly, overthinking every decision, attaching fear to spending or saving. Some, like me, fluctuate between the two. I would catch myself feeling simultaneously anxious about my finances, but instead of obsessively checking my accounts, I was too scared to look.

Most of us were never properly taught how to manage money in a way that feels applicable to our lives. Financial literacy is rarely taught in school, and so many of us learnt about money through social media advice, conversations, podcasts, and trial and error.

For a long time, I approached money in this fragmented way. I avoided engaging with it too closely, not out of disinterest but because I lacked a framework for understanding it. Without structure, it felt too scary and overwhelming. I slowly realised that approaching it like revising for other school subjects and breaking it down like a syllabus was something that made it easier to understand.

This is what that looked like for me to begin with, but over time I have added books, podcasts, articles, and videos (stay tuned for more recs ;))

what are your fav personal finance books ? Add them below im going to make a full curriculum of resources soon …

Leave a comment

I now use the time that I do my makeup, cook, or clean the house to listen to videos from my curriculum, and slowly it has become easier to understand. Once I realised a lot of it is actually jargon, my anxiety became quieter. I stopped internalising the notion that I’m “bad” with money, and now I like to remind myself that I just need to continue equipping myself with the right tools and knowledge.

I find learning in community is always more fun, so if you also want to ditch girl math and do this together, come join this little bossy corner of the internet. I’ll be sharing what I’m learning, what’s actually working, what’s not, and how I’m building my own financial curriculum as I go, as well as the BTS of building my business, navigating my 20s, and what the hell it means to build your dream life.

Hi, I’m Maahika :)

I’m an entrepreneur, writer and podcast host currently building my “rich aunt lore”. I’m the founder of Empower Sounds Media and host of Reclaiming Bossy, listened to in 65+ countries. I’m also one of the UK’s Top 100 Female Founders and a UK Ambassador for Inspiring Girls.

Welcome to Bossy Behind the Scenes, a place where we build our bold and bossy lives, businesses and everything in between.

As a free subscriber, we explore the internal world through essays and reflections on what I’m experiencing, questioning and figuring out as I build my own life, leaving you with questions to explore what you want yours to look and feel like too.

As a paid subscriber, we build the external world. I ungatekeep the practical frameworks, advice and resources I use to build my own life and business, alongside everything I’m learning from the brilliant founders, creators and experts I interview on Reclaiming Bossy. Plus recommendations, travel finds, my Opportunity Radar and, of course, all the juicy rich aunt lore I collect along the way.

Come build your boldest and bossiest life with us <3

Want to work together?

→ Creator/Founder/ Bossy Office Hours: Starting out in your career or building something of your own? Bring me your ideas, questions or the thing you’re stuck on, and we’ll turn it into an actionable plan.

→ Building a business or brand: I work with founders, brands and organisations through Empower Sounds Media on storytelling, personal branding, content and communications. Book a Strategy Session, Discovery Call or join the next Storytelling Sprint.

Besos xox,

Maahika

Did you ever get called a ‘try hard’ growing up? I did all the time.

It felt like trying carried this quiet shame and embarrassment and looking nonchalant and effortless was the goal.

But what if you care? What if you are passionate? What if your ideas and dreams and visions keep you up at night and you don’t know exactly how to execute them or make them happen, so you try? And you fail, and you try again and again and again.

Is it embarrassing to do that?

Personally, I think it’s one of the bravest things. Because trying shows vulnerability. It unveils that you care enough to risk it not working out and looking like a fool.

If I’m honest with myself I know there have been times in my life where I haven’t tried as hard as I could because I was scared of looking like a try hard but aside from the fear of looking like a try hard one of the tenderest forms of heartbreak is when you give it 100% and it still doesn’t seem to work. It makes you question, why hard work and effort alone aren’t always enough.

I often get asked about discipline and how I manage juggling running a business, being consistent with my podcast, and creating, whilst making time for my health, hobbies, and happiness. It’s not something I ever knew how to answer because I never felt qualified. I have never been someone who sticks to the same schedule or does the crazy 5am morning routine. Instead, I like to think about showing up every day as devotion rather than discipline. When you believe in something so much, you want to think about it, and practice it every day.

My Indian grandmother taught me this. As a devout Hindu, she has prayed every day, not because she feels like she has to, but because the practice itself acts as her compass, guiding her through the ups and downs that inevitably come with life.

I feel this way about creating. I am not disciplined, but I do try to make time for creativity every day, because when I am creating and expressing myself, it feels like the closest thing to magic in my life.

Creating my posts, despite not having the followers that signpost being “successful,” has opened up so many doors. I have met some of the most inspirational and beautiful mentors, friends, and colleagues. I have attracted some of the most fun and interesting opportunities, and I have walked into rooms I couldn’t have even imagined, learning things that have grown, changed, and shaped me.

This is why I believe in being devoted to creative practice, I imagine its why many people show up every day to the gym or to write because the practice itself is so tied up with who they are now. Yes the results feel good, but they are created through tiny tipping points, showing up every day doesn’t mean you will see the benefits as consistently, I guess this is why “when it rains it pours” and all your blessings come at once. You can never control when that is but you can make it more likely by being the type of person who tries and tries again.

So for anyone who is scared to give it their all because of embarrassment or disappointment, don’t be. I can’t guarantee a specific outcome, but I promise when you try out of devotion to yourself, your values, and your dreams, life unfolds itself in the most miraculous way.

How are you going to try a little harder today out of devotion to a life you want to create?

Hi, I’m Maahika :)

I’m an entrepreneur, writer and podcast host currently building my “rich aunt lore”. I’m the founder of Empower Sounds Media and host of Reclaiming Bossy, listened to in 65+ countries. I’m also one of the UK’s Top 100 Female Founders and a UK Ambassador for Inspiring Girls.

Welcome to Bossy Behind the Scenes, a place where we build our bold and bossy lives, businesses and everything in between.

As a free subscriber, we explore the internal world through essays and reflections on what I’m experiencing, questioning and figuring out as I build my own life, leaving you with questions to explore what you want yours to look and feel like too.

As a paid subscriber, we build the external world. I ungatekeep the practical frameworks, advice and resources I use to build my own life and business, alongside everything I’m learning from the brilliant founders, creators and experts I interview on Reclaiming Bossy. Plus recommendations, travel finds, my Opportunity Radar and, of course, all the juicy rich aunt lore I collect along the way.

Come build your boldest and bossiest life with us <3

Want to work together?

→ Creator/Founder/ Bossy Office Hours: Starting out in your career or building something of your own? Bring me your ideas, questions or the thing you’re stuck on, and we’ll turn it into an actionable plan.

→ Building a business or brand: I work with founders, brands and organisations through Empower Sounds Media on storytelling, personal branding, content and communications. Book a Strategy Session, Discovery Call or join the next Storytelling Sprint.

Besos xox,

Maahika

I often used to picture the worst case scenario and repeat it again and again in a loop, adding saturation, texture, and detail every time I mentally rehearsed something not working out for me.

This could have been getting rejected for an opportunity I really wanted, someone not liking me back, or even something more mundane like tripping down the stairs on the Tube. I found that picturing the experience before it happened was like an emotional airbag for whenever life felt like a car crash. I believed expecting the worst case scenario would make it less painful when it happened. I felt it would make me feel prepared, and that preparation gave me a sense of control and safety I craved whenever life felt uncertain.

I was scared to picture the best case because I had felt the disappointment, surprise, and even embarrassment when things didn’t play out how I imagined. I thought I was being realistic, but after experiencing a few emotional “car crashes” recently, I realised that all the rehearsal did not make it easier at all. In fact, every time I expected pain, I would attract it.

This isn’t just my experience as a spiritual girl, but it’s also backed by neuroscience. Our reticular activating system is a part of the brain that acts like a filter of information one we need, as we are constantly absorbing and processing so much. It is through this filter that we interpret our experiences, emotions, thoughts, and feelings. So by visualising failure, I was training my brain to see myself through that lens.

When failure would inevitably come, I would feel sad, but also this disturbing sense of relief. I could hear a quiet voice in my mind whisper, “See, I was right…” Often, this voice prefers to be right rather than to be happy. I thought it was easier to be mean to myself first before anyone else could be, so my inner narrative became bitchy, whiny, and insecure.

The more I heard this voice, the more I began to question it. If I could find evidence and prepare for failure, could I equally find evidence that I was talented, loved, smart, and fulfilled? I thought I would try what’s the worst that could happen?

I decided to find an accountability buddy, as I struggled to stay consistent in writing positive thoughts, notes of gratitude, or affirmations in my diary by myself. I messaged my good friend Ana and told her that I felt insecure and unhappy, and that I was going to start sending her a message every day of a moment where I felt proud of myself, grateful, or happy with my life.

I decided to call it “dream woman energy” because I had spent so many years believing the dream woman, or the best version of me, was a faraway destination. I wanted to remind myself that it was actually a mode I embodied in small ways every day.

What started as a small daily message turned into almost two years of building the muscle of positivity and confidence, and training my filter to be one that sees opportunity. My friend started sending me her dream woman energy back, and it created this amplification effect. Seeing her show up every day made me feel even more energised, inspired, and motivated.

Now, two years later, I don’t have to look very hard to find dream woman energy moments in my day. I have become better at engineering luck, opportunity, and miracles into my daily life. Instead of watching a mental movie of flops and failures, I feel excited for what’s around the corner.

Many people think manifestation is this wishy washy and abstract concept, but to me, this is manifestation in its purest form: creating a clear vision of the person you want to be and the life you want, and then taking small steps towards that. Sometimes the step is not obvious, but that’s the part you leave to life. The more you look for the best-case scenario, the clearer it becomes to see.

So if you also imagine the worst case scenario or visualise the challenges and risks in every situation, what are small ways you can train your filter to see other things too?

I have found that thinking this way has actually made me more resilient to hard moments and challenges. Even though I’m not expecting them as much, I can see the opportunities and the silver linings in them more easily.

If this resonated, I’d love to hear your version of “dream woman/man/person energy”

Hi, I’m Maahika :)

I’m an entrepreneur, writer and podcast host currently building my “rich aunt lore”. I’m the founder of Empower Sounds Media and host of Reclaiming Bossy, listened to in 65+ countries. I’m also one of the UK’s Top 100 Female Founders and a UK Ambassador for Inspiring Girls.

Welcome to Bossy Behind the Scenes, a place where we build our bold and bossy lives, businesses and everything in between.

As a free subscriber, we explore the internal world through essays and reflections on what I’m experiencing, questioning and figuring out as I build my own life, leaving you with questions to explore what you want yours to look and feel like too.

As a paid subscriber, we build the external world. I ungatekeep the practical frameworks, advice and resources I use to build my own life and business, alongside everything I’m learning from the brilliant founders, creators and experts I interview on Reclaiming Bossy. Plus recommendations, travel finds, my Opportunity Radar and, of course, all the juicy rich aunt lore I collect along the way.

Come build your boldest and bossiest life with us <3

Want to work together?

→ Creator/Founder/ Bossy Office Hours: Starting out in your career or building something of your own? Bring me your ideas, questions or the thing you’re stuck on, and we’ll turn it into an actionable plan.

→ Building a business or brand: I work with founders, brands and organisations through Empower Sounds Media on storytelling, personal branding, content and communications. Book a Strategy Session, Discovery Call or join the next Storytelling Sprint.

Besos xox,

Maahika