222. Shailja Saraswati on the Twin-Track Journey of Leading

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In this episode of the Women Emerging podcast’s Journey to Leadership series, Julia Middleton speaks with Shailja Saraswati, founder of Unstoppable Network, about the visible journey we write on our CVs and the quieter journey that unfolds beneath it.

Drawing on a 25-year corporate career, her deep spiritual practice and the experiences that led her to create Unstoppable Network, Shailja reflects on what happens when the systems around us no longer fit and we begin searching for something more aligned with who we are becoming.

Together, Julia and Shailja explore self-leadership, inner authority, intuition, resilience and the role of spirituality in shaping the way we lead. They discuss how women navigate uncertainty, why courage often begins with doing the things we believe we cannot do, and what happens when we learn to trust ourselves more deeply.

The conversation also examines storytelling, community and the importance of women learning alongside one another. Throughout, Shailja returns to a powerful belief: that leading starts within, and that the most important person we will ever learn to lead is ourselves.

This episode will resonate with anyone interested in self-leadership, personal growth, women leading, intuition, resilience, inner authority and finding the courage to create their own path.

About the Guest:

Shailja Saraswati Varghese

Shailja Saraswati Varghese is the Founder of Unstoppable Network and creator-host of Unstoppable Woman. With over 25 years in global media and content across Omnicom Media Group, WPP, Discovery Networks, National Geographic–FOX, and Zee, she has worked at the intersection of content, culture, brand partnerships, storytelling, and growth across markets.

Her work focuses on helping founders, experts, and senior leaders build trust, authority, and structured influence through leadership positioning, personal branding, podcast-led IP, and content systems that evolve into monetisable business assets.

An ICF-trained PCC-level Executive Coach, Shailja also works with founders and CXO teams on Decision Stability Under Pressure — strengthening judgment, clarity, consistency, and visible authority in high-stakes environments.

She has coached and mentored over 1,000 leaders and has been recognised as ET Panache Woman of the Year 2024 and Woman Advertising Maven 2024 by Adtech Today.

About the Host

Julia Middleton

Julia Middleton is the host of the Women Emerging podcast and a best-selling author of “If that’s leading, I’m in” as well as two previous books: “Leading beyond Authority” and “Cultural Intelligence”. She is deeply committed to helping people from all backgrounds to find their own approach to leading. In 2020, Julia launched Women Emerging and in 2022 she lead an expedition of 24 women to find ‘an approach to leading that resonates with women’. She now leads expeditions with women all over the world based on 4Es methodology, discovered in the first expedition.

Prior to that, Julia was founder and, for over thirty years, Chief Executive of Common Purpose, which grew to become one of the biggest leadership development organisations in the world.
Julia is also an Ambassador for the Aurora Prize based in Armenia, on the boards of Alfanar Venture Philanthropy in the Arab World and Equality Now, which operates globally, and on the Advisory Councils of Fundacao Dom Cabral in Brazil and Synapse in Pakistan. Born in London and brought up in New York, Julia was educated at French Lycées and graduated from the London School of Economics. She is married, with five children and lots of grandchildren.