Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood

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Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood

Ashley McDonald, Therapist & Nervous System First Business Mentor

169 episodes

2 days ago

Welcome to the very first episode of The Energy Is Everything Series — a six-part conversation series all about protecting your energy, expanding your capacity, and building a life and business that actually feel sustainable in your body. In this opening episode, I’m joined by the brilliant and wildly honest Heather Chauvin for a raw, grounded conversation about identity fatigue, impossible standards, and the invisible ways women are bleeding energy in the name of success, motherhood, and saf...

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Entrepreneurship

Self-Improvement,

Health & Fitness,

All content for Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood is the property of Ashley McDonald, Therapist & Nervous System First Business Mentor and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

Welcome to the very first episode of The Energy Is Everything Series — a six-part conversation series all about protecting your energy, expanding your capacity, and building a life and business that actually feel sustainable in your body. In this opening episode, I’m joined by the brilliant and wildly honest Heather Chauvin for a raw, grounded conversation about identity fatigue, impossible standards, and the invisible ways women are bleeding energy in the name of success, motherhood, and saf...

Show more...

Entrepreneurship

Self-Improvement,

Health & Fitness,

Episodes (20/169)

Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood

166. Reverse Engineering the Life You Want & Reclaiming Your Energy & Identity with Heather Chauvin (The Energy Is Everything Series | Part 1)

Welcome to the very first episode of The Energy Is Everything Series — a six-part conversation series all about protecting your energy, expanding your capacity, and building a life and business that actually feel sustainable in your body. In this opening episode, I’m joined by the brilliant and wildly honest Heather Chauvin for a raw, grounded conversation about identity fatigue, impossible standards, and the invisible ways women are bleeding energy in the name of success, motherhood, and saf...

6 days ago

54 minutes

Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood

165. [Bonus Episode] Integration Over Resolution: Breaking the Cycle of Masochistic Healing

Happy New Year, my love. This bonus episode is a gentle but honest conversation about what so many of us unconsciously bring into a new year: intensity, pressure, and the belief that healing only counts if it hurts. In this episode, I’m naming something I’ve lived, witnessed, and had to unlearn myself… the tendency to create struggle in the name of growth. The idea that if it’s not hard, painful, or dramatic, it must not be real healing. I want to offer you a different path as we step into 20...

1 week ago

9 minutes

Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood

164. My 2026 Planning Process (Structure That Creates Freedom)

In this final episode of 2025, I’m sharing exactly how I plan for a new year in a way that feels grounded, supportive, and sustainable. This isn’t hustle planning or rigid goal setting. It’s the process I use to create structure that actually frees me. I walk you through my full end of year reflection ritual, how I set intentions across every area of my life, and why regulation, capacity, and self trust matter more than forcing motivation. If you want 2026 to feel different, this episode will...

1 week ago

23 minutes

Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood

163. The Science of Becoming Her (and Why I Had to Break First)

This episode is a behind-the-scenes look at what really happens when success comes faster than your nervous system knows how to hold. I’m sharing the full story of what unfolded after a wildly intuitive, expansive year in business and how unworthiness, perfectionism, and fear quietly took over once things felt “too easy.” What followed was burnout, over-efforting, identity collapse, and ultimately a five-month sabbatical that changed everything. We’re talking about the nervous system science ...

2 weeks ago

29 minutes

Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood

162. [Bonus Episode] When Stress Gets Stuck in Your Body (And How to Release It)

In this bonus episode, I’m sharing a behind-the-scenes audio from The Regulated Woman private podcast. It is one of my favorite micro-tools for releasing stress that gets trapped in the body throughout the day. We’re talking about emotional residue... the irritation, disappointment, pressure, or overwhelm your body absorbs when you don’t have time (or space) to fully process what you feel. Even when your mind has moved on, your nervous system might still be holding the weight. This episode wa...

3 weeks ago

7 minutes

Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood

161. When the Plan Falls Apart: Parenting, Values, and Asking the Hard Questions

Sometimes the plan for the episode… totally sucks. In this conversation, I scrap my original idea mid-recording and bring you into what’s actually alive in my world right now: parenting an 11-year-old, navigating big emotions, asking scary questions, and coming back (over and over) to my values as a mom. We talk about what it means to hold space for your kids’ real struggles, why “because I said so” isn’t a value, and how to stay in the room when your child is wrestling with belonging, insecu...

3 weeks ago

22 minutes

Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood

160. How I Plan Profit Without Burning Out: Quarterly Goals for a Regulated Business

What if your business could feel steady instead of like a monthly rollercoaster? In this episode I walk you through my nervous-system-first profit planning, and how I map the year, choose what to sell (and when), and protect my creativity, energy, and peace while hitting my numbers. Today I’m sharing the exact quarterly profit planning process I use to grow my business and protect my nervous system. No more feast-or-famine energy. No more “I have to hit X this month or everything is falling a...

1 month ago

19 minutes

Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood

159. [Bonus Episode] Life After Letting Go: A Story about Motherhood & Capacity

Today, I’m pulling back the curtain on what happens after a retreat, when life gets lifey and the work has to live in your body, your kitchen, your calendar, and your conversations. I’m joined by my dear friend and longtime client, Em, a single mom to twin girls, homeschooler, full-time student, and retired Marine officer, who shares how somatic work, breathwork, and real integration reshaped her capacity, boundaries, and motherhood. TOPICS & TANGENTS • From intellectualizing to embodimen...

1 month ago

34 minutes

Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood

158. The Money Myth That’s Draining Your Energy

Today we’re naming a sneaky belief a lot of high-achievers carry: “If I just had more money, everything would feel easier.” I’ve lived that hustle. Many of my clients do too. Here’s the truth I’ve seen over and over… money doesn’t fix what’s unregulated; it amplifies it. The work is learning to hold “more” from a regulated, values-led place so the revenue magnifies your wholeness. TOPICS & TANGENTS: • The myth: more money will finally make you calm, safe, present, or secure • ...

1 month ago

17 minutes

Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood

157. Why Real Success Takes Time: Rewiring Your Brain for Patience

Hi sister friend. Back at it again... and today, we’re slowing all the way down. Because somewhere between instant coffee, instant Amazon deliveries, and instant validation, we forgot that most things worth building take time. This one’s your permission slip to take the long way, to build something that lasts, to stop chasing the dopamine hit of “fast results,” and to start measuring success by how alive and at peace you feel, not by how fast it happens. Real success, I mean the sustainable, ...

1 month ago

13 minutes

Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood

156. [Bonus Episode] The Problem with AI Therapy (and How to Use It Safely)

Hello, my love. Today’s episode might ruffle some feathers… and honestly, I’m okay with that. Because this one matters. We’re diving into AI therapy — the rise of chatbots, self-coaching apps, and those “instant healing” tools everyone’s whispering about, and the blurry line between support and self-abandonment. If you’ve ever found yourself venting to ChatGPT or journaling through a chatbot, this conversation is for you. I’m not here to tell you to ditch it altogether (you know I love innova...

1 month ago

9 minutes

Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood

155. Just Because You Can, Doesn’t Mean You Should: The Hidden Cost of Being Capable

What if your superpower of “I’ve got it” is the very thing keeping you exhausted? In this episode, I unpack the quiet trap high-achieving women fall into: mistaking capacity for compulsion. We talk about why saying yes feels safer than slowing down, how your body always pays the bill, and the simple filter I use to ensure I don’t lose sight of my defined version of success. TOPICS & TANGENTS: • Capacity vs. compulsion: why “I can” isn’t the same as “I should” • The hidden cost of being ca...

1 month ago

12 minutes

Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood

154. How I’m Staying Visible and Growing My Business Without Social Media

Are you loving it? Send Ash a text! Hi friend. If last week had you wondering “okay, but how do you run a business without the apps?”... This is the step-by-step guide. I audited where my sales actually came from, rebuilt my visibility around what works (and feels good), and let the rest go. Spoiler: less than 20% of my revenue traced back to social media and I was spending about 80% of my energy there. No more. This episode lays out the exact mix I’m using now: podcasting, email, coll...

2 months ago

19 minutes

Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood

153. [Bonus Episode] Sealing Energy Leaks Meditation

Hi friend. I wanted to drop in with a little surprise… something special outside our regular Tuesday episodes. This bonus meditation is one of the most-loved practices inside The Regulated Woman, my signature program designed to help you live, lead, and create from a regulated nervous system. This short guided practice will help you seal your energy leaks, call your power back, and ground yourself when you’re feeling scattered or drained. Because sometimes it’s not what we’re doing that...

2 months ago

7 minutes

Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood

152: Why I’m Taking a Year (minimum) Off Social Media

Are you loving it? Send Ash a text! Hello hello, my love. Reporting live from my social free era with coffee in one hand and a board game under the other. On my 38th birthday, August 28, I broke up with social media for at least one year. Two months in and I do not miss it even a little. Not the scrolling, not the performative selfies, not even the dopamine glitter. This episode is the tea and the receipts. Why I left, how I did it without burning my business to the ground, and what has shif...

2 months ago

22 minutes

Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood

151. The #1 Nervous System Shift That Attracts More Peace and Abundance Than Any Strategy Ever Could

Are you loving it? Send Ash a text! If there’s one thing that’s quietly changed everything for me, my nervous system, my relationships, my business, it’s what I’m sharing in this episode. This part-three conversation wraps up our relaunch mini-series with the simplest, most unexpected reframe that turned my constant striving into something softer, steadier, and so much more peaceful. It’s a way of seeing yourself and your life that makes room for ease, curiosity, and joy again. The kind of s...

2 months ago

17 minutes

Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood

150. Cortisol Addiction Explained (and How to Break the Cycle)

Are you loving it? Send Ash a text! Even after I slowed down, healed, lost 40 pounds, and felt like a brand-new human, the old patterns still tiptoed back in. Not the dramatic face-down-on-the-floor kind of burnout, just the sneaky version that makes you pause and say, “Oh, interesting… you again?” It was enough to make me curious. This part-two debrief is me pulling back the curtain on why urgency creeps in even after rest, how cortisol becomes our go-to fuel source, and the small, doable r...

2 months ago

26 minutes

Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood

149. Seven Signs You’re in High-Functioning Burnout

Are you loving it? Send Ash a text! What was meant to be a little pause turned into almost a year and a half off the mic. August 2024 to October 2025. Time is fake, apparently. In this catch-up episode, I share where I’ve been, why I chose life (again and again) over momentum, and how I rebuilt my days around values that actually feel like mine, even when it meant letting go of things that once defined me. If you’ve ever felt torn between who you’re “supposed” to be and the life you actually...

2 months ago

19 minutes

Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood

Welcome to Shamelessly Ambitious with Ash McDonald

Are you loving it? Send Ash a text! A real, unfiltered look behind the scenes of what it takes to build a life and business that actually feel good. Shamelessly Ambitious is where ambition meets regulation. Honest conversations, nervous system truths, and the messy, beautiful reality of being a woman who holds it all: the family, the business, the vision. Sometimes it’s deep, sometimes it’s messy, but it’s always real. Rooting for you, your way, always 🖤 LINKS: — Become the Regulated Woman...

2 months ago

1 minute

Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood

148. The Final Episode In My Beyond Profit Era

Welcome to the final episode... at least for a little while. Tune in to hear the journey that led me to this choice, including the challenges of balancing work and life, and the realization that sometimes, even the things we love need to take a backseat. 🎙️🚗 Exciting — I’ve recently reclaimed full control over my content and emails which has felt really good. I've been opening up space and pulling back on some things to pour my energy into a mastermind I’ve been secretly crafting BTS. As I p...

1 year ago

28 minutes