Mambition

My period leaked in a store. And honestly? It made me think. Because the version of me from 5 or 6 years ago would have been mortified. This version found it more inconvenient than anything else. And the fact that I'm talking about it on a podcast says everything. In this episode:→ What that moment revealed about how far I've come - and how little I saw it coming→ Childbirth as the first b...

She worked while she was in labour. Not because she wanted to. Because no plan existed. And in that moment -- somewhere between contractions and conference calls - Alexa Starks decided she was done helping women survive a broken system. It was time to fix it. So she did something most of us only dream about. She packed up her family, left America, and moved to the Netherlands - for schools that tr...

My 5 year old son threw something and broke it. He apologised. And a few days later I almost brought it up again but stopped myself. Because his apology was meant to close the matter. And dragging it back out wouldn't have been self protection. It would have been punishment. That moment changed how I think about forgiveness entirely. In this episode:→ The incident: what happened, what I almost did...

She was told art wouldn't pay. So she did the sensible thing. Years working in a law firm - capable, competent, but never quite in her own vision. She was good at it. And something was always slightly off. It took a power cut, a redundancy, and a breastfeeding epiphany to crack things open. And she found her way back. Leanne Pearce is a portrait artist, twice shortlisted for Portrait Artist of...

Raising children is expensive. Nobody is pretending otherwise. But motherhood will also expose everything about how you use money - the stories you tell yourself, the happiness you think you can buy, the things you spend on without ever asking why. In this episode: The myth: My daughter played with homemade playdough for four hours at nursery. At Christmas, the presents lasted 30 minutes. The box...

Maternity redundancy isn't just an HR issue. It's a confidence heist. Caroline didn't just lose a job. She lost her professional identity, her routine, the quiet confidence that comes from knowing you're good at something and being seen for it. According to Pregnant Then Screwed, up to 74,000 women in the UK are forced out of work every year while pregnant or on maternity leave. Th...

Hot coffee. A gym membership. A pair of earphones. None of it costs much - and all of it changed everything. In this episode: The thermos flask: The tiny thing that makes me feel like I got the best end of the deal - even at the park on a Tuesday morning. The gym: Why I leave the house when my kids do - and what it means to meet them again from a place where I've done something for me. Earphones:...

Ashmita Randhawa is Director of R&D at Sunderland Software City, Visiting Professor at the National Innovation Centre for Data, and Co-Lead at the Hartree Centre. She has led global teams, holds a PhD, and is deeply passionate about the role of AI and data in shaping what comes next. She is also a mum to a 7-year-old daughter. Her mum passed away before she could see her become a mother. That...

Mother's Day just passed. There were flowers. There was cake. And then I went to the gym. In this episode: Being celebrated: What it means to receive fully — and why so many mothers rush past it. This is the life I once dreamed of: Why motherhood is something I never, ever take for granted. After the cake is eaten: The other part of Mother's Day nobody talks about — pouring into yourself....

Work isn't just a paycheck — for mums who care, it's identity, purpose, and proof that they exist beyond their caring role. Charlie Beswick spent 16 years as a teacher while caring for her son with complex needs. When she had to step back from full-time teaching, she didn't just lose a job — she lost a piece of herself. In this episode, Charlie opens up about the invisible labour, the false choice...

March is International Women's Day. It's also the month Tiffany's mum was buried. Celebration and grief, side by side. In this episode: March: The collision of celebrating women while grieving the one she lost. The double-edged sword: How losing her mum made her aware that time is finite—a gift (discipline, intention, clarity) and a weight (pressure, exhaustion, struggle to be easy on...

The formidable duo are back and celebrating! 5 years of motherhood. In this episode: Raising two completely different children—what works for one crashes and burns with the other. Parenting = constant humility. A train journey that gave Tiffany perspective: seeing quiet teens reminded her this chaotic phase is fleeting (cue: gratitude mixed with exhaustion). Living in the margins: building busines...

I sat opposite a dad with two teenagers on the train to London. His kids: quiet, on phones, playing cards. Comfortable silence. Happy family. Mine: singing, asking endless questions, needing me constantly. I saw my future. But it wasn't as simple as "that looks easier" or "I'll miss this chaos." In this episode: The perspective shift: seeing the future brings gratitude...

Heather Black is the founder of Supermums—upskilling 1800+ women in tech. But that's not where her story starts. She built a Salesforce career while raising two daughters. Not as a backup plan. Not "just in case." But because she refused the false choice: You don't have to choose between being a devoted mother and having a career that's yours. You can build both. And when lif...

The last 5 years of parenting has been a constant fight to not catch a cold. I lost that fight this week. Again! I'm recording this with a sore throat, still recovering from the bug my kids gave me over two weeks ago. And yet the routine continues. Because I haven't figured out how to take time off from being needed by y 3 and 5 year old. In this episode: Why being sick as a working parent...

Amy Lewin is in the thick of it—Marketing and Commercial Director at Girls in Marketing, mum to a toddler, and pregnant with baby number two. She gets it. The juggle. The ambition that doesn't fit into naptime. The choices you make when you refuse to wait for "someday." In this episode: How becoming a mother shifted her from defining herself in "boxes" (career achievements,...

My 3-year-old daughter is living in two realities at once. Fiercely independent one minute. Needs mummy the next. Mature beyond her years in one breath, hysterical over a lost doll at 3am in the next. And watching her made me realise that So am I. We're all living contradictions. Strong AND struggling. Capable AND falling apart. Confident AND completely unsure. But somewhere along the way, we...

Alex and I are in the thick of it—children aged 3-5, so we were excited to ask someone on the other side: Rachel, who raised 4 kids while building a business over 25 years. "Looking back—what actually mattered?" Not achievements. Not milestones. Relationship. Rachel: teacher → founder of Educating Matters → 25 years raising 4 kids (now 15-24) → the long view. She chose slow growth to be...

I finally had my professional photo shoot last week. Pre-kids me would've spent weeks planning—outfit anxiety, hair decisions, brooch or no brooch? This time? I picked my dress the night before, and everything turned out amazing. In this episode: I talk about the shift from perfectionism to spontaneity, and why it matters beyond just photos. How motherhood gives you the ability to access joy o...

She spent her entire career seeing other women as competition. Strategic. Logical. Always one step ahead. Then motherhood hit—and showed her children aren't strategic. They're chaos. Mandy Rees: commercial real estate lawyer → severe postnatal depression → founder of Mother for Life. Motherhood realigned her entire career path—from competing in corporate to building spaces where women coll...

Working parenthood gives you skills you didn't know you'd need. Lightning reflexes. Knowing where every toy is at all times. Remembering names at 2am. Living in the margins. You're not just surviving. You're building something. In this episode: The 7 skills working parents develop (accidentally) that make the chaos somehow manageable. Why knowing where to draw the line—and when to...

The hardest seasons have a way of forcing us inward—to sit with ourselves, reassess what matters, and figure out who we're actually becoming. 2025 was one of those years for me. As we close out January, I'm sharing the 15 biggest lessons that changed how I see motherhood, myself, and what it means to build a life I actually like living. From lowering my threshold for joy to finally ageing...

We're more afraid of rejection as we get older. We've learned to protect ourselves. We don't put ourselves out there anymore. But here's what the past 6 months taught me: friendships aren't a nice-to-have. They're what carry you through. In this episode: Why making friends as a mother takes real courage. How the friendships you build make you show up differently - not just...

Ask Maryann Walsh if she's a risk-taker and she'd say no. That's what makes her story so powerful. Registered dietician. Consulting business. 2 TED talks. PhD candidate. And at 40, she made the least "safe" decision of her life: single motherhood by choice. Two abusive relationships taught her a powerful lesson: she didn't have to stay with the wrong partner just to have...

I have a fear of wasting time. This week, my neighbor's dad was given 3 months to live. I sat with them - just talking, letting time pass. Fighting every urge to be productive. Here's what struck me: I live like time is always urgent. But her family would give anything for those 3 months to drag. Time always feels urgent until it really is. Then you just want it to slow down. In this episode: We'v...