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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.
Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood, & Life
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, insecurity, and the very human fear of not being liked. It’s an honest peek into how I’m fumbling, regulating, repairing, and choosing relationship on purpose.
TOPICS & TANGENTS:
- Life updates: Colorado snow, moving (again), and starting 2026 in a new home
- Parenting an 11-year-old: hormones, friendship dynamics, and fitting in
- The conversation no parent wants to have: asking your child directly about self-harm
- Why kids need us to ask the hard questions out loud
- Creating safety: therapy for boys, emotional literacy, and modeling vulnerability
- Why “because I said so” is not a parenting value
- Mutual respect, consequences, and holding boundaries after a big emotional moment
- Curiosity as a parenting tool: better questions than “How was your day?”
- When your child’s biggest fear mirrors your own (and what to do with that)
- Remembering: you can’t be the parent you want to be from a dysregulated state
POINT OF THE STORY:
You will never feel “ready” or fully qualified for the version of parenting you’re in, it’s all first-time territory. But when the plan falls apart, coming back to your core values, staying curious, and being brave enough to ask the hard questions builds the kind of relationship where your kids actually bring you their real life.
Are you loving it? Send Ash a text!
MORE ABOUT ASH
I am the definition of duality — I swear like a sailor and break rules like it’s my job, but I also hold incredible space for my clients and work my ass off to help them achieve the success they’re after. But I'm also here for the non-preneur woman, too. My background in counseling gives me a unique perspective on what it means to show up, serve, & create connection for those who feel like they've never belonged before.
LINKS:
- Become the Regulated Woman
- Get emails that feel like your best friend (if your best friend was a therapist and actually told you the truth).
- Use code BB20 to get The Burnout Breakthrough for only $7
- Follow me on IG (dropping in once a quarter for updates & gossip)
- Website: ashmcdonaldmentoring.com
Work with me 1:1
- Therapeutic Mentorship
- Business Therapy (therapy + strategic mentorship) ...