How to Trust Yourself with Anna Holtzman

What if the very patterns that helped you become successful are also the patterns limiting how much success, joy, ease, and visibility you can actually hold? In this episode, Anna talks with Chartered Psychologist Farya Barlas about what Farya calls trauma-led success — the ways that perfectionism, hyper-independence, overworking, people-pleasing, and other survival adaptations can become highly effective strategies for achievement. These patterns aren’t inherently bad. In fact, they may be part of what helped you build the life or career you have today. But at a certain point, the same strategies that once protected and propelled you can begin to create a ceiling. Farya shares how she helps high-achieving women move from success fueled by survival into what she calls reparative success: building from desire, capacity, creativity, choice, and a deeper sense of self-trust. Anna and Farya also explore why healing doesn’t have to mean losing your edge, why discomfort isn’t always a sign that something is wrong, and how nervous-system work can support expansion rather than simply helping us stay comfortable inside familiar patterns. They discuss money, ambition, visibility, identity, inherited beliefs about success, and the subtle signals that can tell us we’re ready for something more — even when, from the outside, everything appears to be going well. In this episode, we explore: • What “trauma-led success” looks like in high achievers • Why survival strategies are often rewarded professionally • The fear that healing will make us less ambitious or successful • The difference between trauma-led success and reparative success • Why nervous-system regulation isn’t always about avoiding discomfort • How perfectionism and hyper-independence can become a ceiling • The difference between authentic visibility and performing visibility • How childhood and intergenerational beliefs can shape our relationship with money and receiving • Why people often enter this work through business, leadership, money, or relationship challenges rather than a desire to “heal” • How Farya helps clients build greater capacity for asking, receiving, earning, and being seen • Why healing can be the foundation rather than the destination • The question at the heart of Farya’s work: How good can it get? About Farya Barlas Farya Barlas is a Chartered Psychologist with more than 23 years of clinical experience. Her work focuses on helping high-functioning, ambitious women understand and move beyond subconscious survival-based patterns that can limit their capacity for success, visibility, wealth, leadership, and fulfillment. Drawing from trauma work, nervous-system regulation, psychology, identity work, and decades of clinical experience, Farya helps clients move from simply surviving their success to fully inhabiting it. She is also the host of the podcast From Trauma to CEO. Connect with Farya Website: https://www.faryabarlas.com Instagram: @faryabarlas.psychologist Podcast: From Trauma to CEO Farya also generously offered listeners access to her trauma-led success checklist along with one day of Voxer access to explore what comes up as you work through it. Find the link in the show notes. Connect with Anna Website: https://www.annaholtzman.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anna_holtzman/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaholtzman/

What if your capacity isn’t a limitation to overcome, but information you can build around? In this episode, Anna talks with business strategist and coach Nikita Williams about what it means to create a business — and a life — that works with your actual energy, needs, and rhythms rather than constantly demanding that you override them. Nikita is the founder of Crafted to Thrive and host of the Business With Chronic Illness podcast. Since 2017, she has helped creatives, holistic practitioners, and entrepreneurs living with chronic illness build sustainable businesses that create consistent revenue without requiring them to constantly do more. Together, Anna and Nikita explore the shame that can arise around having limited or changing capacity, the pressure to follow one-size-fits-all formulas, and the surprising discomfort that can come with allowing things to become easier. They also talk about visibility, self-trust, boundaries, nervous system patterns, identity, and why so many entrepreneurs unintentionally recreate the same rigid systems they wanted to escape in the first place. In this conversation, you’ll hear about: • Why “increase your capacity” can be such an unhelpful message • Learning to treat your energy as something to steward rather than exploit • How chronic illness shaped Nikita’s approach to business • Why ease can feel uncomfortable, even when it’s exactly what you need • The vulnerability of being visible and sharing who you really are • How success can still be unsustainable • Why boundaries are essential to building freedom • The difference between having offers and having an actual business model • How doing less can sometimes create better results • What it means to trust that your pace is your pace • Why Nikita believes business is deeply personal • Building around your values, strengths, health, and real life instead of someone else’s formula One of the central ideas in this episode is simple but powerful: your pace does not have to match anyone else’s. As Nikita puts it, “My pace is my pace.” This conversation is for anyone who has ever wondered whether they’re doing enough, moving fast enough, working hard enough, or somehow falling behind — and wants to experiment with building from a place of attunement instead. Connect with Nikita Williams Website: https://thrivewithnikita.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thrivewithnikita/ Podcast: Business With Chronic Illness, available wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also explore Nikita’s free business audit and join her email community, Built to Breathe, through her website. Connect with Anna Holtzman Website: www.annaholtzman.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anna_holtzman/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-holtzman/

What happens when you’ve spent decades becoming exceptionally good at succeeding inside a system — and then decide to build something of your own? In this episode, Anna sits down with Deb Boulanger, founder of Life After Corporate, who works with accomplished corporate women leaders making the transition into consulting, fractional leadership, coaching, and advisory work. Deb knows this transition from the inside. After a highly successful corporate career — including growing a new business from zero to $32 million in 30 months and leading a team of more than 50 people — she reached a point where the pace was no longer sustainable. Burnout, the end of her marriage, caregiving, motherhood, and menopause all converged into a larger question: What do I actually want my life to look like now? What followed was not simply a career change, but an identity shift. In this conversation, Anna and Deb explore what happens psychologically when the title, team, salary, and company name that once reinforced your sense of competence are suddenly gone — and you have to trust your own judgment in a whole new way. They talk about: • Why leaving corporate can bring up unexpected self-worth wounds • The role perfectionism, people-pleasing, procrastination, and fear play in entrepreneurship • Why market research can feel much more emotionally loaded than it sounds • The fear of being perceived as “salesy” — and how Deb reframes selling as service • Why visibility is essential if you want to be discoverable • The connection between pricing and self-worth • Deb’s powerful reminder: “No one is buying your self-esteem.” • Why underpricing can lead to burnout, resentment, and blurred boundaries • The difference between overpricing and overpromising • Why one failed webinar, launch, or sales conversation is simply a data point — not proof that your business won’t work • The financial and emotional “wobbles” that often happen when building something new • How to keep going when your nervous system wants immediate proof that your efforts are working • Why leaving corporate and building your next chapter can become something much deeper than a career move Deb also shares stories from her work with women who have moved through uncertainty, rebuilt their confidence, and turned decades of experience into sustainable businesses and high-value advisory relationships. At its heart, this conversation is about learning to separate your value as a human being from the results in your business — and trusting that the expertise you built over decades did not disappear when you left your corporate role. Connect with Deb Boulanger Website: https://lifeaftercorporate.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debboulanger-thegreatdo-over/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deb_boulanger/ You can also find the Life After Corporate podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Connect with Anna Holtzman Website: www.annaholtzman.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-holtzman/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anna_holtzman/

What if you didn’t need to know exactly where your creative path was leading before you took the next step? In this episode, Anna talks with Margo Tantau, creative industry veteran, founder of Tantau Studio, and host of the beloved Windowsill Chats podcast, about the winding path of a creative life and career. Margo has spent more than 30 years working across art, product development, licensing, creative direction, retail, manufacturing, coaching, and artist representation. Rather than following one perfectly mapped-out career plan, she has built her work by staying curious, noticing what lights her up, and following the opportunities, people, and ideas that pull her forward. Anna and Margo talk about what it means to create a career that feels unmistakably like you, even when you can’t see the destination yet. They explore the importance of keeping your creative flame alive, why connection can be more useful than trying to solve everything alone, and how allowing other people to support your work can make a creative life more sustainable. They also get into the vulnerability of visibility: sharing your work, telling your stories, putting an offer into the world, and trusting that what comes naturally to you may be exactly what someone else has been looking for. In this episode, we talk about: • How Margo’s winding creative career evolved from design and retail into product development, licensing, artist representation, teaching, and podcasting • Why you don’t need to know the destination before beginning a creative path • Following curiosity and paying attention to the things that “turn your head” • The difference between forcing creativity and allowing inspiration to emerge responsively • Why keeping even a small thread of creativity alive matters • The role of specificity and storytelling in helping people connect with your work • The fears that can come with sharing your work and making yourself visible • Why putting an offer into the world sometimes reveals a need you didn’t know was there • Building a creative career through practice rather than waiting for one breakthrough moment • How Margo manages a multifaceted creative business without trying to do everything herself • Learning to ask for help, collaborate, and let your work be held by more than one pair of hands • The importance of creative community and finding people with whom you don’t have to explain yourself • Margo’s encouragement to follow the small tug toward whatever interests, excites, or intrigues you next About Margo Tantau Margo Tantau is a creative industry veteran who has spent her career elevating artists and turning ideas into thoughtful, successful products. With over 30 years of experience in product development, art direction, and creative brand building, she’s collaborated with hundreds of artists, championing their work, mentoring their growth, and helping shape collections that truly resonate. Now, as founder of Tantau Studio, Margo formally represents a curated roster of surface designers and illustrators, continuing her long-held passion for connecting art with opportunity through strategic, heart-led representation. She also hosts Windowsill Chats, a beloved podcast where she shares candid conversations with artists, makers, and industry leaders about creativity, business, and the satisfaction of building a life in art. Margo believes that doing more of your own thing, boldly and consistently, is the key to building a career that’s true to who you are. To her, that’s what real creative success looks like. Connect with Margo Website: margotantau.com Podcast: Windowsill Chats Instagram: @windowsillchats and @mtantau Connect with Anna Website: www.annaholtzman.com Instagram: @anna_holtzman

What happens when we stop trying to outrun the parts of our story we wish were different—and begin to understand that those very shadows may hold some of the material for our healing? In this episode, Anna sits down with Cassidy Gard, a three-time Emmy Award-winning television producer, former Good Morning America correspondent, and author of Cosmic Goodness: Surrendering the Shadows to Live in the Light. Cassidy writes and speaks at the intersection of spirituality, motherhood, sobriety, grief, and reinvention. For years, Cassidy made a career out of telling other people’s stories, covering breaking news, mass shootings, the Me Too movement, and some of the most emotionally intense events of our time. Behind the scenes, she was carrying a story of her own: growing up with an alcoholic father, childhood anger and shame, grief, anxiety, and the exhausting work of masking the parts of herself she didn’t yet know how to hold. Cassidy began journaling at seven years old, and writing became both a refuge and, eventually, a way back to herself. In this conversation, she and Anna explore what happens when we turn toward our own inner world, recognize the breadcrumbs we’ve been leaving ourselves all along, and begin trusting the story that wants to emerge. They talk about: • Being highly visible while still hiding in plain sight • Why Cassidy began journaling as a child and how her relationship with writing evolved • The “cosmic winks” and seemingly small clues that can guide us through reinvention • Moving from telling other people’s stories to claiming your own • The emotional toll of working in breaking news and covering traumatic events • Cassidy’s experience caring for her estranged father at the end of his life • Grief, alcoholism, estrangement, and finding peace without receiving the closure you wanted • Why writing a memoir can require giving yourself permission to own your lived experience • Motherhood, sobriety, and intentionally creating a different kind of family life • Why spirituality doesn’t have to mean being endlessly “easy breezy” • The idea that the shadow isn’t the enemy—and that we can’t surrender what we haven’t first acknowledged • How to begin writing when you don’t have huge blocks of uninterrupted time • Trusting that your story is worth telling before you have proof of where it will lead Cassidy also shares a powerful reminder for anyone who feels intimidated by the idea of writing: start smaller than the big picture. A voice memo, an iPhone note, ten minutes stolen from an otherwise full day—all of it counts. The work can accumulate before you ever know exactly what it is becoming. As Cassidy puts it, “The shadow is also where the medicine is that you’re seeking. You cannot surrender what you have not identified and acknowledged.” Connect with Cassidy Learn more about Cosmic Goodness: Surrendering the Shadows to Live in the Light at CosmicGoodness.com. Follow Cassidy on Instagram at @cassidygard. Cosmic Goodness is available wherever books are sold. If you read it, consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads—reviews can make a meaningful difference for debut authors. Connect with Anna Follow Anna on Instagram: @anna_holtzman Learn more about Anna’s work: www.annaholtzman.com Send Anna an email and tell her what stayed with you from this episode: [email protected]