Have It All

Biddy is a holistic psychologist and the founder of Biddy, a coaching business for ambitious women navigating burnout, stress and overwhelm. She’s also mum to Evie and Finn, and she launched her business when Finn was just two months old, while he was at home alongside her.

We talk about what drew her away from clinic work and into coaching, and the pattern she sees again and again. The women who come to her are driven, high performing and love what they do. But they’ve hit a point where the way they’ve been operating just isn’t sustainable anymore, and their wellbeing, their relationships and how they show up as a parent are starting to feel it.

Biddy gets really honest about going back to work after Evie and feeling like she’d lost all her vocabulary. Even with all her training she wasn’t ready for it ("it" being matrescence), because knowing the theory and living the reality are two very different things.

We also get into:

• Negotiating four days as your version of full time
• Why the inner critic gets so loud in motherhood

• Practical ways to look after yourself when you have no time (something is better than nothing)
• Losing your confidence and finding your way back
• What having it all means to her right now

Let me know what you think of this episode! And thank you always to the incredible women who selflessly lend their time and inner thoughts to this podcast - I am so grateful to them all.

Follow Have It All on IG @haveitall.podcast or find Biddy @biddy____

In her twenties, Jo had it all on paper: Colenso, Saatchi New York, flown from AKL to LDN just to pick up a camera, and more impressive stories for a Saturday BBQ than most.

In this episode, Jo isn't afraid of saying the quiet part out loud: "I think I became addicted to being impressive."

Jo and I talk about what happens when the career that built your identity stops being the thing that defines you. Then along came motherhood (a journey in itself), her role got restructured while she was on leave, and she had to rebuild who she was from somewhere other than a job title.

We get into the nitty gritty: coming back from maternity leave to report to someone who used to report to her, the identity crisis of feeling replaceable at work, and why she eventually negotiated her way into a GM role on her own terms, working 9am to 3pm so she's the one doing school drop off and pick up.

We also talk about:

• Why "where do you work?" can feel like the most annoying question in the room once you're a mum
• The moment she realised the best years of her career weren't actually behind her, just different
• Parenting out loud at work (and why some workplaces still make you feel like you need to sneak out for pick up)
• Reframing ambition from climbing the ladder to mastering your own life
• What "having it all" really means once you stop comparing yourself to everyone else's highlight reel

If you've ever felt like your job title used to say more about you than it does now, this one's for you.

Follow Have It All on IG @haveitall.podcast

There's a version of "having it all" that gets sold to ambitious women, and then there's the version Elle actually lives.

In this conversation, we get into the three months' leave she took with each baby, the chronic fatigue that eventually stopped forced her to slow down, and the mum guilt that's actually hitting harder now (years later) as her kids get old enough to ask why she's not the one at pickup.

We talk identity, ambition, the sacrifices no one tells you about going in, and why she's still figuring out how to keep work out of home time (spoiler: it's hard).

Elle's honest about what she'd do differently. She's just as honest about what she wouldn't change for anything. This one's about seasons, about what it costs to be the person everyone can rely on, and about choosing a career you love while your kids are only this little once.

Listen if you've ever been sitting with your kids and felt half your brain still checking your inbox — and you're over pretending that pull isn't there.

• Follow Elle on IG @fitr.at40
• Follow @haveitall.podcast on IG

From finding the glimmers in every day to naming her inner voice, Hannah proves that a life lived intentionally is a life lived well. And she carries this intention into the way she and her husband parent their three boys.

Hannah now works full-time for ASB while her tradie husband prioritises time at home with their youngest, but this hasn't always been the set-up. Across three maternity leaves she's worked part-time, three days, four days, and got through the 2020 lockdowns with a toddler and a newborn, before landing on the arrangement that works for her family now. Her advice for anyone navigating a squiggly career: "You don't need to start at the beginning, you just need to find the right in."

Hannah's own path proves it, dietitian, then marketing and PR, then charity partnerships, now community partnerships at ASB, where she recently helped bring the first Kids Can Glow Run to life.

In this episode we also talk about the small daily glimmers that keep her going, the Fair Play cards she and her husband use to split the mental load, and what it's taken to rebuild her confidence since returning to a workplace that changed while she was on leave.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to this episode!

You can support the podcast by following, liking and sharing with a friend.

Or find me on IG @haveitall.podcast

In her early 20s, Maxene was asked if she was planning on having kids soon, and actually passed over for roles because of the assumption that she would be. (Let's remember this is a completely illegal and highly inappropriate question to ask anyone!)

When she became a mum, she was let go during her trial period because her child kept getting sick. Then, pregnant with her second, she asked for flexibility and was initially denied.

Maxene and I reflect on the disappointment and injustice of it all and how that series of events led her to restart her business and go all in as a self-employed working parent.

Follow Have It All on IG: @haveitall.podcast

Follow Maxene on IG: @maxenelondoncreative

Visit Maxene's website to learn more about her work: www.maxenelondoncreative.co.nz

After a beautiful year off with her first baby, Tamara was expecting more of the same second time around. But at 37 weeks pregnant with Zach, she found a lump in her breast and within days had a breast cancer diagnosis. Chemo started when Zach was two weeks old.

Tamara Milne is a radiographer, a mum of three boys and the co-founder of Check Your Bits, a brand born from one of the most confronting years of her life.

In this episode we talk about the reality of parenting a newborn and a toddler while going through cancer treatment, the grief of a maternity leave that looked nothing like the first, and the "mum guilt" that still lingers.

We also get into what it's really like returning to work with chemo brain on top of the standard mum fog and going from the senior your team leaned on to the one who suddenly can't find the words.

Tamara's perspective on self-advocacy, knowing your normal, and finding purpose on the other side of something really hard is the kind of conversation that stays with you long after you've finished listening.

I really hope this one reaches NZ women far and wide, as a reminder to check your breasts and get to know what's normal for you. And if you want to grab Tamara's Check Your Bits body wash, head to checkyourbits.co.nz and use code PODLOVE for 15% off your order.

Available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Follow @haveitall.podcast on Instagram

Can you be a present mum, a career woman and a founder all at once? Not perfectly. But Sasha McLeod is figuring it out in real time, and she's honest about every (messy) part of it.

In this episode, I chat with Sasha, Dose Buddy founder and mum of two, about:

• Balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship
• The journey of launching DoseBuddy
• Work flexibility and support for mums
• How Sasha's own upbringing shaped the kind of mum she wants to be

Sasha also runs digital marketing at Sea Digital in Wellington, so she's not romanticising the juggle. She's living it. She brings the kind of clear-eyed perspective that comes from doing all of it at once and choosing what to say no to.

• Available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, or watch the full episode on YouTube.

• Subscribe so you never miss an episode, and follow @haveitall.podcast on Instagram.

If you love the show, a rating or review genuinely means everything!

Most conversations about “having it all” skip over the reality of what it actually takes.

In this episode, I’m joined by Charlotte, founder of Rose Studio – a boutique design studio based in Auckland, New Zealand helping bold, passionate business owners to bring their vision to life with strategic and intentional design.

Charlotte built her business while raising three young kids, including a high-needs autistic child, navigating life across countries, and spending long stretches solo parenting when her husband was overseas for his professional football career.

We talk about what it really looked like behind the scenes – from waking at 4am to carve out quiet time for work, to rebuilding her confidence as a mum returning to the workforce.

We cover:

• The reality of solo parenting and navigating motherhood without your usual support systems
• How Charlotte built her business around her life (not the other way around)
• The confidence shift that came from studying again as a mum
• What motherhood has taught her about leadership, resilience and capacity
• The challenges of raising a high-needs child alongside career ambition
• Why “having it all” looks different for every woman — and why that matters

Follow @haveitall.podcast on Instagram

NEW episodes every second week.

What happens when motherhood, identity, and a creative spark collide? In this episode, I sit down with Zazi Henderson — speech and language therapist, mum of two, and the creator behind Zazi Plays, the parenting community loved by thousands across Aotearoa.

Zazi shares the beautiful chaos of raising young children while running a business, but also the deeply human moments behind it all — like the realisation that so many parents struggle with something as simple as play. As she says in the episode:

“It is just really hard. We no longer know how to play and it feels really clunky and strange. We’re adults now — it doesn’t come naturally to us. So you’re not alone in finding it hard. I don’t just find it easy.”

We talk about the emotional weight of returning to work as a first-time mum — the inadequacy she felt at the time, and the compassion she now has for her younger self. She reflects on how much more confident she wishes she’d been, and how common those feelings truly are.

Zazi also opens up about her business turning five years old, and what it’s taken behind the scenes: the partnership, the family dynamics, and the moments of guilt when choosing her own wellbeing. She shares how she started to carve out time for herself — even if that meant missing dinner for a gym class — and how she reframed exercise as something that teaches her kids what self-care looks like.

If you love Zazi Plays, or you're navigating parenting, identity, business, or mental health right now, this conversation will feel like a deep breath out.

What happens when the return-to-work plan changes?

In this episode, I sit down with Charlotte — paediatric ICU nurse and founder of And Breathe First Aid. When we first recorded together, she was preparing to return to Starship after maternity leave. Six months later, everything looks different. Charlotte made the decision to extend her leave and pour her energy into growing her first aid education business.

We talk about how becoming a parent reshapes your perspective on work, why mums who work from home or run their own businesses often face judgement for using childcare, and the messy, honest juggle of raising young children while keeping a business afloat.

Charlotte shares how her nursing lens has shifted since becoming a mum, the emotional weight of caring for families in crisis, and why parental advocacy in healthcare matters more than ever.