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Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood, & Life
Shamelessly Ambitious is an honest, grounding, and vulnerable podcast for ambitious, emotionally intelligent women who are done proving themselves, tired of living in constant high-functioning burnout, and craving a life and business that actually feel good.
Hosted by Ash McDonald—therapist, nervous-system-first business mentor, and speaker this show blends clinical expertise with lived experience to deliver nervous system tools, embodied strategies, and radical permission so you can expand your capacity, root into emotional steadiness, and build sustainable success that supports your whole life.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, stretched too thin, caught in productivity guilt, or stuck running on stress, this podcast meets you where you are—with therapeutic insights, embodied practices, and heartfelt stories that create real shifts. Whether you’re navigating motherhood, entrepreneurship, or the messy middle of redefining success, each episode helps you slow down, regulate, and return to a felt sense of safety in your body.
With over a decade of experience at the intersection of therapy and leadership, Ash pulls back the curtain on what really works—offering grounded guidance you can apply in real life.
What you’ll hear:
- Honest conversations about burnout recovery, nervous system regulation, and redefining success
- Somatic tools, meditations, and practices that build inner safety and capacity
- Stories of motherhood, mom-life, ambition, and the courage to create a life and business that feel rich and real
If you’re asking the following questions, you’re in the right place:
- How do I stop tying my worth to productivity?
- How do I know if I’m experiencing high-functioning burnout and what do I do about it?
- How do I balance motherhood and leadership without losing myself?
- How do I calm my body when I feel overwhelmed or overstimulated?
This is the podcast for when you’re ready to reclaim peace, expand what you can hold, and create success that doesn’t cost you yourself. Tune in and take the next step toward a regulated, rooted, and deeply fulfilling life.
Episodes
175 episodes
172. Marketing Without Burning Out: Building an Energy Aligned Strategy with Kaitlyn David (The Energy Is Everything Series | Part 5)
Ash is joined by brand and marketing strategist Kaitlyn David for a real, refreshing conversation about building a marketing strategy that actually fits your life (kids, pivots, puppy chaos and all) without lighting yourself on fire in the proc...
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Episode 172
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42:31
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171. Money is Energy: How to Tap Into the Flow of Wealth [Bonus Episode]
A sneak peek behind the scenes of The Regulated Woman, dropped right in the middle of the Energy Is Everything series because money is, in fact, energy. In this bonus, we’re reframing wealth as something neutral, dynamic, and ...
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Episode 171
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14:11
170. Beyond the Algorithm: Using Human-First AI to Protect Your Energy in Business with Kelly Sinclair (The Energy Is Everything Series | Part 4)
In this conversation, Kelly Sinclair (self-proclaimed “accidental tech nerd”) pulls back the curtain on what happens when your business strategy doesn’t match your actual energy — and how human-first AI can become a tool for regulation, clarity...
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44:58
169. Human Design & Energetic Hygiene: Micro-Shifts to Heal Hidden Energy Leaks with Danielle Laura (The Energy Is Everything Series | Part 3)
We’re continuing The Energy Is Everything Series and today I’m sitting down with my friend Danielle Laura, an energy mastery teacher and Human Design guide for conscious leaders who are here to use their gifts to make the world better… without ...
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43:17
168. [Bonus Episode] When Ambition Outgrows You: Identity, Marriage, and Learning to Lean
This bonus episode is an unfiltered reflection on what happens when the identity that once fueled your ambition no longer fits. I share openly about the messy middle of personal evolution, the quiet unraveling that followed slowing down in my b...
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17:13
167. The Energetics of Being Seen: Healing the Visibility Wound with Renee Bowen (The Energy Is Everything Series | Part 2)
Today we’re continuing The Energy Is Everything Series with a conversation that hits a nerve for so many high-achieving women: visibility, identity, and the energetic cost of hiding.I’m joined by Renee Bowen — photographer, trauma-inform...
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47:14
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.
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54:51
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 n...
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Episode 165
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9:33
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 <...
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Episode 164
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23:21
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...
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Episode 163
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29:42
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 abou...
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Episode 162
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7:08
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 ques...
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Episode 161
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22:59
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, ener...
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19:01
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,...
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34:18
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 un...
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17:46
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.Th...
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13:12
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...
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9:05
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 ...
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Episode 155
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12:42
154. How I’m Staying Visible and Growing My Business Without Social Media
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), an...
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19:49
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 ...
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7:44
152: Why I’m Taking a Year (minimum) Off Social Media
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...
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Episode 152
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22:02
151. The #1 Nervous System Shift That Attracts More Peace and Abundance Than Any Strategy Ever Could
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...
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Episode 151
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17:17
150. Cortisol Addiction Explained (and How to Break the Cycle)
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, inter...
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Episode 150
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26:18
149. Seven Signs You’re in High-Functioning Burnout
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 ...
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Episode 1
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19:23