Mambition

What happens when you realise you can’t pre-book a taxi in Pisa, Italy — not even 15 minutes before your 6am flight — and you’re travelling with two small children?

Why does the idea of “we’ll sort it when we get there” send some of us into full-body panic?

In this episode, I can laugh about it now — because we did make it home in plenty of time. But it’s really about control, planning, and parenting.

About how having children makes us crave certainty — because so much already feels unpredictable — and how travel has a way of exposing just how tightly we hold on.

From light-switch chaos to taxi trauma, this story is about learning to let go, trusting it’ll work out, and remembering that the best moments often happen when the plan falls apart.

Maybe the real growth isn’t in mastering the logistics… but in surviving them with humour intact.

Vanessa Rio built Mothering Minds—the UK's first online network of perinatal therapists—after her own postnatal depression revealed the massive gap in maternal mental health support.

But even while doing meaningful work, she and her husband felt stretched thin, disconnected, and stuck in Cambridge's competitive rat race.

So they left. Packed up and moved to a remote island in the Philippines.

This is a conversation about matrescence, building alongside motherhood, and knowing when to stop optimizing the life you have and start creating the one you actually need.

We talk about competitive parenting culture, the unique mental health challenges of new motherhood, financial trade-offs, and what it really takes to choose intentional living over what's expected.

If you've ever felt like the life you built doesn't quite fit anymore—this one's for you.

Two funerals in two days. Both women, 90 years old. Long lives—celebrations, not tragedies. Both deeply loved.

Sitting in those services, I heard "Unforgettable" by Nat King Cole twice. "Unforgettable, that's what you are..."

Back-to-back funerals bring an overload of emotions. Death forces us to slow everything down and bring what's important into sharp focus.

In this episode, I talk about what I observed. The stories told. The pictures shared. The love remembered. At the end, what truly mattered wasn't possessions or achievements—it was how they made their loved ones feel. The love they gave. The light they brought.

Before motherhood, I was individualistic. I thought being anchored would limit me. But sitting at these funerals, seeing families show up—I realised: being anchored isn't a limitation. It's a blessing.

My children are 2 and 4. The days feel long, but the years are short. So I'm establishing small intentional practices now: dinner together, phone away in the mornings, presence over presents, capturing memories.

One day, my children will stand somewhere and remember me. What will our life together have represented?

That's up to me. Right now.

Homeless at 17. First property at 18. Multi-million-pound portfolio by 25. CEO of 7 businesses.

And Michelle Niziol will tell you: motherhood was harder than all of it.

The woman who could build empires struggled to be present with her own children. She didn't know another way yet. The business felt like it would fall apart without her.

But here's the breakthrough: when she finally stepped back, the business grew. Exponentially.

She hired a therapist. Not for productivity. For presence. To learn how to be fully there with her children.

In this episode, we talk about:→ Why stepping back from her 7 businesses made them grow faster→ How she went from daily office to monthly board meetings—while doing every school pickup→ Why visibility = credibility—and the price she's willing to pay for success→ Why she's petitioning to make childcare a legitimate business expense (1,700+ signatures)→ The financial literacy gap keeping self-employed mothers trapped

Michelle eliminated the full-time nanny. Does all school pickups. Runs 7 companies from monthly board meetings.

She's not afraid of hard things. Or paying the price for what she wants. That's how you build both empires and presence.

This isn't about choosing between ambition and motherhood. It's about integration.

Five hours at York Railway Museum with my 2 and 4 year old kids. Countless moments of just... waiting. But in those margins—while our children explore, play, chase each other—something unexpected happens: we find our people.

Dr. Seuss called it "The Waiting Place" in Oh, the Places You'll Go! A place where everyone's stuck, just waiting for something to happen. It sounds depressing. Unproductive.

But for parents? The waiting place is where we find each other.

In this episode, I talk about the silent agreement between parents: our time is at the mercy of our children, so we skip small talk and go straight to the real stuff. Within minutes, strangers become confidants. We talk about tiredness, impossible juggling acts, guilt, identity—the things we're scared to say out loud anywhere else.

Then the kids run off, the conversation ends, and we'll probably never see each other again. But we knew that going in. So we cram intimacy into stolen minutes—because that's all we've got, and it's all we need.

The waiting place isn't where we get stuck. It's where we find connection. The margins aren't empty—they're full of people who get it.

7am. Freezing beach. 700 strangers. And we're about to get completely naked and run into the North Sea.

This episode isn't just about a skinny dip. It's about flexing the muscle of getting comfortable with discomfort.

Doing new things, scary things—not despite being mothers, but alongside it.

Here's the truth: so many women are so conscious of their post-baby bodies that they hold themselves back from living. We wait to feel ready. We wait for our bodies to look different. We wait for confidence to arrive.

But someday isn't guaranteed. So we said yes to something terrifying—afraid, unsure—and did it anyway.

And how we felt after? Phenomenal.

We talk about:→ Why "ready" is a decision, not a feeling→ Standing naked with 700 people and realizing your post-baby body is capable, not broken→ How obsessing over what people think of our bodies stops us from making life what we want it to be→ How discomfort compounds—the same muscle that got us into the water is the one that built this podcast

This is Mambition in action: saying yes while terrified, because the feeling after is worth it.

What's your skinny dip? What are you waiting to feel ready for?

A fire engine whizzed past me yesterday, and I instinctively said "WOW!" and waved. Then I realised—I wasn't even with my kids.

My 2 and 4-year-old have completely recalibrated what joy looks like for me. Their threshold for delight is impossibly low: a puddle can make their entire morning.

Meanwhile, I had trained myself that joy needed to be earned through massive achievements—big promotions, major milestones, spectacular moments. I was always waiting for the big wow, completely missing all the small ones happening around me every single day.

In this episode, I explore what happens when we let our children teach us how to notice wonder again. Joy isn't an interruption to the chaos—it's woven into the ordinary moments.

If you've been waiting for something spectacular to feel joy, this episode is your permission to find it in the small moments instead.

"If I'm leaving my child, it has to be worth it."

That one question led Jools Tyrer to completely reinvent her career.

Flight attendant → teacher → defense sector → transformational coach and podcaster (Mama's Flightpath).

She took redundancy twice. Once by choice to travel the world. Once unexpectedly—losing her identity and security overnight. Both times, she turned the space into opportunity.

In this conversation:→ How motherhood cracks us open and reveals what we're actually tolerating→ Self-care as the path back to yourself after losing yourself in early motherhood→ The motherhood penalty is real—so how do we navigate what works for us NOW?→ Living life alongside your children instead of waiting for "someday"

Jools isn't here to tell you to "have it all."

She's here to show you how to build something that doesn't require leaving yourself behind.

My 2-year-old daughter is genuinely upset every day that she's not yet 3. So this year, I'm taking a page from her book and celebrating my birthday loud and rebelliously.

Mambition light me up so it makes sense that I record an podcast episode sharing 36 lessons from 36 years.

I reflect on loss and perspective, motherhood and identity, resilience and action, self-care in the trenches, building and creating, growth and change, and knowing your worth.

From losing my mum at 9 to learning that integration beats balance, from embracing the cringe of starting a podcast to understanding that prepare your child for the world, not the world for your child—these are the truths that have shaped how I show up as a mother, a creator, and a human being.

If you're navigating the beautiful chaos of ambition and motherhood, feeling restless even after reaching life's "goals," or wondering how to live fully right now instead of waiting for "someday"—this one's for you.

This is how I celebrate: by creating, by sharing.

Life itself is the gift.

Another year is the celebration.

My daughter can't wait to be older.

I'm learning to be grateful I get to be.

Elena Shirokaya spent 12 years crushing it in private equity - until her body forced a reckoning. Now she teaches high-achieving women what she learned the hard way: your nervous system speaks a language most of us ignore.

She's not here to tell you to meditate more.

She's here to explain why your chronic fatigue, anxiety, and Sunday night dread are data - not weakness.

And how somatic practices create the kind of resilience that mindset work can't touch.

In this episode we explore how your body signals career misalignment before your brain admits it, what nervous system regulation looks like in real-life chaos, and why your regulation affects everything from business decisions to your kids' emotional development.

Her message: You don't have to choose between ambition and wellness.

Sustainable success is built from the body up, not despite it.

Topics: Nervous system regulation • Burnout recovery • Somatic practices • Ambitious motherhood • Emotional resilience