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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
214 episodes
211. Shamelessly manipulating the people I love
There’s a strategy I’ve been using in my marriage, my parenting, my friendships, and even with myself that gets me more of what I want without requiring anyone else to lose. And somewhere between two days of nonstop conversation in a tiny villa...
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210. Shamelessly Making Life Harder
I recorded this from my car on the way to a networking event because I couldn't wait. It started as a rough morning with my middle son && turned into the most important realization I've had in a while. The habit that’s making my life ha...
209. Shamelessly Practicing Ambition Again: 90 Days to Find Out If I Still Want This
This is a follow-up to my last (Episode 208), so make sure you listen to that first if you haven't already. Last week I announced the 90-day challenge to reclaim my edge &&a...
208. Shamelessly Reclaiming My Edge
I'm giving myself 90 days to find out what happens when I genuinely start going for it again. This is the formal announcement, the whole messy truth, && the reason I'm coming back to social media for a little bit.Also…
207. Shamelessly Unaligned & Doing Shit I Don’t Want to Do
Last episode I got raw about uncertainty && not having it figured out. This one is the follow-up… because once you admit you've been standing still, the next question is: what does moving actually require? && the honest answer i...
206. Shamelessly Not Having It Figured Out
I didn't know what I was gonna say when I hit record, truthfully… I'm in a funky season. I'm newly 39, && I'm noticing something I didn't expect: the more I know, the less certain I become. This episode is me processing that out loud.
205. Ash Unplugged: It’s Kind of Chic to Know Where You Suck
It's my birthday week, I'm turning 39, && I'm coming in with a raw one. This is a full behind-the-scenes Ash Unplugged episode, which means personal updates, business updates, && the thing I've been sitting with lately ...
204. Shamelessly Reclaiming My Ambition: The Disconnection Epidemic
I've talked a lot about burnout, but so has everyone else in this space. I'm starting to think we've been diagnosing the wrong thing, because the women I work with aren't always JUST exhausted. They have capacity, however they seem to ...
203. The Grief of a Declining Business: Identity, Income & Starting Over with Megan Yelaney
Welcome to the Grief Series, a collection of conversations about the grief woven throughout our lives with some extraordinary women bringing their raw, vulnerable stories to the mic. I hope you see yourself somewhere in these stories.…
202. The Grief of Motherhood: Ambition, Identity Crisis & the Versions We Leave Behind with Sophia Parra
Welcome to the Grief Series, a collection of conversations about the grief woven throughout our lives with some extraordinary women bringing their raw, vulnerable stories to the mic. I hope you see yourself somewhere in these stories.…
201. The Grief of Losing Your Parents: Caregiving, Business & Keeping Life Moving with Cait Howard
Welcome to the Grief Series, a collection of conversations about the grief woven throughout our lives with some extraordinary women bringing their raw, vulnerable stories to the mic. I hope you see yourself somewhere in these stories.…
200. The Grief of Being Witnessed: What My Husband Really Thinks About Being Married to an Ambitious Woman with Jake McDonald
Welcome to the Grief Series, a collection of conversations about the grief woven throughout our lives with some extraordinary women && men bringing their raw, vulnerable stories to the mic. I hope you see yourself somewhere in these sto...
199. Your Life Is What You Tolerate: The Mindset Shift That Changed My Summer
If you've been white-knuckling your way through a season and calling it productivity, this one is going to hit. Sometimes grief isn't about loss… sometimes it's about the story you've been telling yourself so many times it started to feel like ...
198. The Grief of Belonging: Friendship, Family & the Village That Never Showed Up with Emily Merrell
Welcome to the Grief Series, a collection of conversations about the grief woven throughout our lives with some extraordinary women bringing their raw, vulnerable stories to the mic. I hope you see yourself somewhere in these stories.…
197. The Grief of Reinvention: Divorce, Career Pivots & Becoming a New Version of Yourself with Delia Monk
Welcome to the Grief Series, a collection of conversations about the grief woven throughout our lives with some extraordinary women bringing their raw, vulnerable stories to the mic. I hope you see yourself somewhere in these stories.…
196. The Grief of Being Human: Marriage, Motherhood & All the Invisible Losses with Chrissy Powers
Welcome to the Grief Series, a collection of conversations about the grief woven throughout our lives with some extraordinary women bringing their raw, vulnerable stories to the mic. I hope you see yourself somewhere in these stories.…
195. The Grief of Aging: Beauty, Ambition & Becoming a New Version of Yourself with Bryn Daylor
Welcome to the Grief series - a collection of conversations about the grief woven throughout our lives with some extraordinary women bringing their raw, vulnerable stories to the mic. I hope you see yourself somewhere in these stories.
194. Ash Unplugged: The Rebrand, My Red Flags & Everything I Hate Right Now
Welcome to Ash Unplugged, the behind-the-scenes monthly episode where nothing is off the table and the real shit gets said.In this episode we’ll explore the full rebrand reveal, the complete list of things I hate right now, the red flags...
193. ADHD and Ambition: Why Your Fast Brain Is Your Greatest Business Asset
Women with ADHD have been told their intensity, their fast brains, and their emotional depth are dysfunctional…but I truly believe ambition and neurodivergence can coexist in the healthiest way. The traits we have been taught to suppress (the h...
192. What Regulation Actually Means (It’s Not the Zen Bullshit You’ve Been Sold)
Regulation is not being calm, checking a million boxes, or looking a certain way on the outside. The real definition of regulation is developing self-trust, adaptability, and the ability to stay with yourself rather than disassociate emotionall...
191. The Internet Made Hustle a Dirty Word
This episode is for every high-achieving woman who feels exhausted trying to build a successful business, be present in her real life, and somehow make it all look effortless.We’re unpacking hustle culture, high-functioning burnout, soft...
190. I Quit Social Media for 8 Months (Here’s What Changed in My Business)
Eight months off social media. This episode is the behind-the-scenes of what that actually did… to my business, my relationships, my creativity, and my sense of self.TOPICS WE EXPLORE:What eight months offline actually...
189. The Shift Happening in Online Business And How I’m Adapting
This episode is the continuation of Episode 188, and if that one was about telling the truth about what it takes to be an entrepreneur, this one is about telling the truth about what’s happening in online business right now. The landscape has s...
188. The Most Dangerous Thing Ambitious Women Do In Their Business
There is a gap I see in almost every high-achieving woman I work with.What she shows the world. And what she actually tells me.This episode is my soapbox moment on why high-functioning entrepreneurs need to stop performing a versi...
187. What I Actually Do When Everything Feels Like Too Much
Welcome to “From Where I’m Standing”, the monthly episode where I pull back the curtain on my actual life, my business in real time, and the stuff I’m learning the hard way so you don’t have to.TOPICS WE EXPLORE:Why I ...