Orli Cotel walked away from her creative self for 20 years. Career. Kids. Life got in the way.
Then at 42, she started painting again. Sold her first piece at 44.
She also spent two decades in the climate movement before pivoting to fight for paid leave when she became a parent and realised how broken the system is.
Here's what's powerful about Orli's story: she didn't choose between personal reclamation and systemic change. The two feed each other.
Her painting fills her cup so she CAN fight for parents. Her advocacy gives her purpose beyond herself.
In this episode: Why "unicorn space" (something solely yours) makes you a better parent. How becoming a parent shifted her work from climate to paid leave advocacy.
Why you can't spreadsheet your way out of broken systems. Redefining ambition from "who will I crush" to "what will I create."
And why motherhood is the grounding place, not the summit.
We've been told good mothers sacrifice everything. What if that narrative is what's breaking us?
Personal reclamation and systemic impact aren't competing. They make each other possible.
My daughter played with cornflour and ice for 2 hours at nursery. My kids' favourite Christmas activity? Running to the Polar Express soundtrack.
And I realised: they're giving me the permission to keep it simple.
Before I became a mum, I volunteered with Shelter at Christmas. The people there had nowhere to go. They'd ask why I was "giving up" my Christmas. But it taught me: if you have people who love you, family to be with - you've already won Christmas.
So why are we overcomplicating it?
The toys we panic-buy. The elaborate experiences. The pressure to make it "magical." We're so stressed we can't enjoy it.
At the start of December, I went to a spa weekend. Started the month by putting myself first. And I think that's why this Christmas feels different.
In this episode: What children actually remember. What mothers can let go of. And why simplifying Christmas isn't about doing less - it's about being present enough to actually enjoy it.
Simple IS magic. That was always the magic.
For 14 years, Laura Styles was an executive PA. Then motherhood became her turning point.
Her first child's crying triggered something deeper than exhaustion — it exposed patterns she'd been running on autopilot since childhood. She knew she couldn't parent the way she wanted until she addressed what was happening beneath the surface.
So she retrained as a hypnotherapist. Now she helps high-achieving, heart-led mums rewire old patterns, break free from burnout, and stop just "getting through the day."
In this episode, we get into:
→ Why 95% of your decisions run on childhood autopilot
→ The patterns we unknowingly pass to our children: perfectionism, burnout, the inability to stop
→ What hypnotherapy actually does (it's not stage hypnosis or losing control)
→ Stress addiction: Why high achievers struggle to rest and how to break the cycle
→ Christmas pressure and social media comparison — why the need to "make it perfect" is a pattern, not just stress
→ Self-compassion vs self-sacrifice: Modeling what you want your children to learn
With Christmas 2 weeks away, this conversation about breaking generational patterns and rewiring your mind couldn't be more timely.
Two different days. Two completely different choices. Both felt impossibly hard.
Monday: I closed my laptop early, stopped working, and played with my kids instead.
Wednesday: I walked 30 minutes in the snow to go to the gym when I desperately wanted to stay in my warm house.
Both required discipline. Both required courage. But for years I only thought ONE of those counted.
Because we're really good at pushing through. But stopping? That feels like failure.
The skill isn't always choosing to push or always choosing to rest. It's knowing which one you actually need in that moment. That's where wisdom starts.
And here's the truth: how we treat ourselves is what we're teaching our children. If we want to raise kids who know when to push and when to rest, we have to model that balance first.
Giselle spent 25 years co-founding, growing, and selling three businesses while raising two daughters.
Then, she hit a point where something had to change so she returned to university in her 40s and completed a PhD on women, work, and well-being.
But instead of just researching the problem, she used it to solve something in herself - and created a roadmap for other women in the process.
In this episode, we discuss:
→ Building and walking away - why she exited three successful businesses she'd built
→ The honest answer to "can women really have it all?" - after living it and researching it
→ Setting boundaries as a woman and mother - why this isn't selfish, it's survival
→ Preparing for empty nest - what comes next when her daughters (now 15 and 17) leave home
Giselle didn't just study work-life balance. She lived it, broke under it, then rebuilt differently.
:Not many women go back to university in their 40s to study the exact problem they're living. Giselle did. And what she found will change how you see ambition and motherhood.
Alex's son recorded a video inviting Tiffany's children to come to the museum with him. It was spontaneous, confident, and brave. And it got us thinking...maybe this is one of the most underrated skills we can teach our children.
The ability to go first. To invite people to do things. To ask. To put yourself out there. And most importantly, to not take it personally when someone says no, can't, or isn't interested.
This isn't an academic skill. It's a life skill. One that builds confidence, resilience, and the ability to handle rejection without internalising it.
When we look at our own lives now, we realise: we have richer, more enjoyable experiences because we invite people to things. We ask. We go first.
But at the foundation of this skill is something deeper: confidence. Our children need to know they are loved, special, and valued. That's where it starts. Because when they know their worth isn't tied to whether someone says yes or no, they can ask freely.
And that changes everything.
Lucy spent 20 years as an international TV journalist covering war zones in Iraq, Ukraine, and the Middle East. Then she became a mum to a son with autism - and realised her career wouldn't bend around the life she needed.
But instead of scaling back her ambitions, Lucy rebuilt them entirely.
In this episode, we discuss:
→ The moment she knew journalism had to end - being told to get on a plane with no notice, zero schedule control
→ The turning point - realizing her nervous system directly affected her son's, making presence essential
→ The constant pivot - from Airbnbs to coaching to courses, leveraging her existing skills (storytelling, camera presence) to build a business that sold 50,000+ courses
→ The real price of building this way - 5am starts, navigating a big life change, and why it was worth it
→ Creating passive income and flexibility - building a business model that lets you be present without sacrificing ambition
Lucy didn't shrink her ambitions to fit motherhood. She rebuilt them around it.
If you're tired of choosing between being present and being ambitious, this conversation will show you there's a third option.
When do you finally get to start living your life?
When the kids sleep through the night? When they start school? When you have a balanced day?
My 2-year-old daughter was sick last week, nursery cancelled, work piling up. I had every reason not to go to the gym.
But I went anyway — and on the way there, it hit me: I've been waiting for a full stop that's never coming.
Here's the thing: life with young children IS the trenches. The coffee goes cold. You sit down to eat and someone needs water. You haven't drunk water yourself all day. There's always another nursery event, clothes they've grown out of, another illness coming. It's relentless.
So instead of waiting for life to settle before I start living, I'm learning to live IN the chaos.
I want to know that waiting until they leave home to discover who I am means losing 15 years of becoming. That the margins aren't second-best — they're where life actually happens. That I can start a podcast in my dressing gown without makeup, go to the gym when I "don't have time," build systems that make the impossible possible. That progress beats perfection every single time. That self-compassion isn't soft — it's what keeps me going when I miss a week.
Because maybe the goal isn't to wait for the full stop... but to build a life worth living in the commas. The chaos doesn't end. But you can live anyway — with systems, audacity, and kindness toward yourself.
What happens when a Fortune 500 exec stops hiding her identity as a mother at work and starts leading with it instead?
Lucy Watkins, mum of two, had a realisation: the same leadership skills she used at work - structure, empathy, communication, strategy - could transform her family life too. She stopped hoping things would just work out.
She started designing them.
The result? She went from burnout to impact, won an Employee Award for changing workplace culture around parenting, and created The Family Playbook - a weekly rhythm that helps ambitious parents move from surviving to thriving.
In this episode, we explore:
Lucy doesn't treat family life as something that happens TO you - she treats it as something you LEAD. Because leadership starts at home.
What do you teach your children about hard times when you know you can't protect them from everything?
Not if they'll face heartbreak, loss, or situations they didn't see coming — but when?
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. The person I am today was shaped largely by hard times. This podcast wouldn't exist without those experiences. Not just the recording or content — but going through difficult things forced me to learn resilience, find joy, be disciplined.
Here's the thing: I can love my children with every breath and still know I can't shield them from life's hardest lessons.
So instead of trying to prepare the world for them, I'm preparing them for the world.
I want them to know that people will show up differently in hard times — and that's about capacity, not care. That healing is theirs to build, like a warrior seeking out the dragon before it burns down the village. That there's a better version of them waiting on the other side of pain. That even in the darkest moments, life is still passing by — and finding joy in small things isn't giving up, it's choosing to live.
Because maybe the goal isn't to spare them from hard things... but to give them the foundation to move through them with grace, self-respect, and unshakeable resilience.
Are you undercharging while working too hard? Helen Walker—Mindset Ninja for Female Founders—reveals why so many women struggle with imposter syndrome, underpricing, and the belief that wanting money is greedy.
Helen shares her own journey with imposter syndrome and how even successful women attribute their wins to "luck" rather than skill, leading to burnout and playing small.
In this episode, you'll discover:
If you're ready to charge more, work less, and make the time you spend away from your kids truly count—this episode is for you.
What happens when your 4-year-old — the child who wouldn't tolerate a splash of water on his sleeve — goes feral with paint at Scouts, ending up covered head-to-toe and completely unbothered?
Why do we label our children so quickly — "he's not a messy play kid" — and then act surprised when they change?
If he can change this dramatically without announcement or permission, what does that say about us?
Ten years ago, I quit my job and went backpacking for three months. The traditional girl who followed the script — school, uni, good job — suddenly buying a backpack and going off-piste. I was in a dark place and needed change. Looking back, that's where the me who podcasts, takes risks, and asks for what she wants started to emerge.
Here's the thing about motherhood: it's a chapter we've never lived before. The old ways stop working. We have less time, new priorities, a child who needs us more than ever. If we keep doing what we've always done, we'll only end up frustrated.
But what if we dared to reassess? To challenge what we think is fixed about ourselves? To do the inner work, look at our labels, and give ourselves permission to change, pivot, try new things?
Maybe thriving in motherhood isn't about bouncing back or finding yourself again... but about becoming someone new entirely.
Natalie Ojevah MBE went from apprentice to Vice President at Barclays — building programs that supported 100+ Black-led businesses from inside a corporate giant. She's a Forbes 30 Under 30 changemaker, a mother of two boys (4 and 8 months), and proof that you don't have to quit your job to build something that matters.
In this episode, we get into:
→ The intrapreneur mindset: Why your 9-5 can be your investor
→ Owning your ambition after motherhood: Why returning to work because you want to isn't something to justify
→ Pain as fuel: How losing her brother and navigating complex family dynamics shaped the leader she is today
→ Confidence vs comfort: The shift that helped her speak in her own voice in rooms where no one else looked or sounded like her
Natalie is an open book — someone who truly knows herself and holds nothing back.
This conversation is unflinching, honest, and will make you rethink what's possible from exactly where you are.
What happens when you realise you can’t pre-book a taxi in Pisa, Italy — not even 15 minutes before your 6am flight — and you’re travelling with two small children?
Why does the idea of “we’ll sort it when we get there” send some of us into full-body panic?
In this episode, I can laugh about it now — because we did make it home in plenty of time. But it’s really about control, planning, and parenting.
About how having children makes us crave certainty — because so much already feels unpredictable — and how travel has a way of exposing just how tightly we hold on.
From light-switch chaos to taxi trauma, this story is about learning to let go, trusting it’ll work out, and remembering that the best moments often happen when the plan falls apart.
Maybe the real growth isn’t in mastering the logistics… but in surviving them with humour intact.
Vanessa Rio built Mothering Minds—the UK's first online network of perinatal therapists—after her own postnatal depression revealed the massive gap in maternal mental health support.
But even while doing meaningful work, she and her husband felt stretched thin, disconnected, and stuck in Cambridge's competitive rat race.
So they left. Packed up and moved to a remote island in the Philippines.
This is a conversation about matrescence, building alongside motherhood, and knowing when to stop optimizing the life you have and start creating the one you actually need.
We talk about competitive parenting culture, the unique mental health challenges of new motherhood, financial trade-offs, and what it really takes to choose intentional living over what's expected.
If you've ever felt like the life you built doesn't quite fit anymore—this one's for you.
Two funerals in two days. Both women, 90 years old. Long lives—celebrations, not tragedies. Both deeply loved.
Sitting in those services, I heard "Unforgettable" by Nat King Cole twice. "Unforgettable, that's what you are..."
Back-to-back funerals bring an overload of emotions. Death forces us to slow everything down and bring what's important into sharp focus.
In this episode, I talk about what I observed. The stories told. The pictures shared. The love remembered. At the end, what truly mattered wasn't possessions or achievements—it was how they made their loved ones feel. The love they gave. The light they brought.
Before motherhood, I was individualistic. I thought being anchored would limit me. But sitting at these funerals, seeing families show up—I realised: being anchored isn't a limitation. It's a blessing.
My children are 2 and 4. The days feel long, but the years are short. So I'm establishing small intentional practices now: dinner together, phone away in the mornings, presence over presents, capturing memories.
One day, my children will stand somewhere and remember me. What will our life together have represented?
That's up to me. Right now.
Homeless at 17. First property at 18. Multi-million-pound portfolio by 25. CEO of 7 businesses.
And Michelle Niziol will tell you: motherhood was harder than all of it.
The woman who could build empires struggled to be present with her own children. She didn't know another way yet. The business felt like it would fall apart without her.
But here's the breakthrough: when she finally stepped back, the business grew. Exponentially.
She hired a therapist. Not for productivity. For presence. To learn how to be fully there with her children.
In this episode, we talk about:→ Why stepping back from her 7 businesses made them grow faster→ How she went from daily office to monthly board meetings—while doing every school pickup→ Why visibility = credibility—and the price she's willing to pay for success→ Why she's petitioning to make childcare a legitimate business expense (1,700+ signatures)→ The financial literacy gap keeping self-employed mothers trapped
Michelle eliminated the full-time nanny. Does all school pickups. Runs 7 companies from monthly board meetings.
She's not afraid of hard things. Or paying the price for what she wants. That's how you build both empires and presence.
This isn't about choosing between ambition and motherhood. It's about integration.
Five hours at York Railway Museum with my 2 and 4 year old kids. Countless moments of just... waiting. But in those margins—while our children explore, play, chase each other—something unexpected happens: we find our people.
Dr. Seuss called it "The Waiting Place" in Oh, the Places You'll Go! A place where everyone's stuck, just waiting for something to happen. It sounds depressing. Unproductive.
But for parents? The waiting place is where we find each other.
In this episode, I talk about the silent agreement between parents: our time is at the mercy of our children, so we skip small talk and go straight to the real stuff. Within minutes, strangers become confidants. We talk about tiredness, impossible juggling acts, guilt, identity—the things we're scared to say out loud anywhere else.
Then the kids run off, the conversation ends, and we'll probably never see each other again. But we knew that going in. So we cram intimacy into stolen minutes—because that's all we've got, and it's all we need.
The waiting place isn't where we get stuck. It's where we find connection. The margins aren't empty—they're full of people who get it.
7am. Freezing beach. 700 strangers. And we're about to get completely naked and run into the North Sea.
This episode isn't just about a skinny dip. It's about flexing the muscle of getting comfortable with discomfort.
Doing new things, scary things—not despite being mothers, but alongside it.
Here's the truth: so many women are so conscious of their post-baby bodies that they hold themselves back from living. We wait to feel ready. We wait for our bodies to look different. We wait for confidence to arrive.
But someday isn't guaranteed. So we said yes to something terrifying—afraid, unsure—and did it anyway.
And how we felt after? Phenomenal.
We talk about:→ Why "ready" is a decision, not a feeling→ Standing naked with 700 people and realizing your post-baby body is capable, not broken→ How obsessing over what people think of our bodies stops us from making life what we want it to be→ How discomfort compounds—the same muscle that got us into the water is the one that built this podcast
This is Mambition in action: saying yes while terrified, because the feeling after is worth it.
What's your skinny dip? What are you waiting to feel ready for?
A fire engine whizzed past me yesterday, and I instinctively said "WOW!" and waved. Then I realised—I wasn't even with my kids.
My 2 and 4-year-old have completely recalibrated what joy looks like for me. Their threshold for delight is impossibly low: a puddle can make their entire morning.
Meanwhile, I had trained myself that joy needed to be earned through massive achievements—big promotions, major milestones, spectacular moments. I was always waiting for the big wow, completely missing all the small ones happening around me every single day.
In this episode, I explore what happens when we let our children teach us how to notice wonder again. Joy isn't an interruption to the chaos—it's woven into the ordinary moments.
If you've been waiting for something spectacular to feel joy, this episode is your permission to find it in the small moments instead.