In the 1990s she lied about working from home.

Not because she was ashamed. Because working from home as a young mother wasn't considered real work.

Thirty years later — her kids are grown, she has four grandchildren, and she is just getting started on her next chapter.

Adrian Miller is a writer, Content Alchemist and grandmother who has lived the full arc of ambitious motherhood. And what she has to say about it — looking back from the other side — is some of the most honest and grounding wisdom we all need to hear.

In this episode:→ The lie she had to tell — and how COVID normalised what she was doing thirty years ago→ The working mother vs stay at home mother divide — then and now→ What grandparenting teaches you that parenting never could→ What children actually need to see from ambitious mothers — and it isn't perfection→ Ambition at every life stage — why it doesn't end when the kids grow up, it evolves

For the mother who is in the thick of it right now and needs to hear from someone who has been there, come out the other side and is still building something magnificent.

The long view changes everything.

This is the episode I almost didn't record.

Because life has been full lately. Really full. And sometimes showing up feels like one thing too many.

But that's exactly why I did.

Because Mambition isn't something I do when I have capacity. It's something that gives me capacity. And there's a difference.

In this episode I talk honestly about the never ending juggle — and what actually makes it possible to keep showing up even when everything is stretched.

For the mother who is wondering how anyone finds the capacity for anything beyond survival right now.

You don't need more time. You need to know what fills you.

And then protect it fiercely. 💛

She was the only girl on her rugby team.

And twenty five years on a pitch became one of the most important foundations of her life.

Not because of the sport itself. But because of what it built. The ability to receive feedback pragmatically. Without making it personal. To extract what's useful and leave the rest. To show up regardless.

Laura Jenkins is a commercial litigation partner at Stewarts. Two children. Full time.

What does it actually takes to stay at the top when the world quietly expects you to step back?

In this episode:→ How rugby built her foundation for receiving feedback — pragmatically, without making it personal→ What it took to stay at partner level after having children — and the reframe that made it possible→ The culture shift that happens when senior people are visibly human — why normalising life outside work benefits everyone→ Why motherhood made her a sharper lawyer and a more open minded human

It's a story about the foundations that don't show up on a CV — and carry you further than anything that does.

I did these things before I had children. At the time I had no idea how much they would matter.

The solo trips. The career risks. The financial discipline. The comfort I built with my own company. None of it felt like preparation. It just felt like living.

But on the other side of becoming a mother — I understand something I couldn't have understood then. Everything I built before my children arrived became the foundation I didn't know I was laying.

In this episode:→ Solo travel — on going your own way before you know where you're going→ Career risks — why making my career fluid early means motherhood never had to box me in→ Financial discipline — the habits I built in my 20s that serve me even more now→ Learning to enjoy my own company — and why that changes everything as a mother→ Investing in myself — because there is a version of me outside of motherhood that is equally worthy of the journey

For the mother who is glad she lived fully before she had children — and is living fully because of it.

She didn't know she had ADHD until she became a mother.

Not because motherhood caused it. Because motherhood exposed it.

The sleepless nights, the relentlessness, the sheer volume of what is required — all of it revealed something that had always been there but never had anywhere to hide.

So she went looking. And what she found changed everything — for her and for her children.

In this episode:→ What motherhood exposed that years of coping mechanisms had hidden→ The ADHD diagnosis — and what it felt like to finally have language for it→ Building a life that works for your brain rather than against it→ Why the label isn't the point — understanding yourself is→ How she is giving her children the language to understand themselves — not as disadvantaged but as different.

And how that same lens is teaching them to recognise and celebrate difference in everyone around them.

For the mother who has ever felt overwhelmed in a way she couldn't quite explain.

And for anyone who has wondered whether understanding themselves differently might change everything.

Nobody tells you that motherhood will make you more yourself. Not less.

More confident. More direct. Less embarrassed. Less interested in wasting time on things that don't matter. More willing to lie down on a stranger's picnic blanket — metaphorically speaking. My 3 year old does it literally.

This episode is about the growth that sneaks up on you. The version of yourself that motherhood quietly builds while you're busy building your family.

In this episode:→ Why I now have strong opinions about a good thermos flask→ The gym replacing going out — and why that brings me the same amount of joy→ Dropping the filter when it comes to people — and what my 3 year old taught me about that→ Why I genuinely believe nothing good is happening after 9pm and I am completely at peace with that→ How motherhood rewired my self awareness, my spending, my confidence and my relationship with time

For the mother who thought she was losing herself — and found out she was just getting started.

Rashi Kakkar started Decks and Diapers when she first became a mother.

Not because she had time. She didn't.

Because something in her needed to make sense of what was happening. The identity shift. The career tension. The feeling that motherhood and ambition were supposed to be opposites and yet somehow she couldn't accept that.

She is a global leader at McKinsey & Company, a mum of two including a newborn, and knows what it takes to keep building when life is already full.

In this episode:→ Why she felt compelled to create something of her own alongside a demanding career — and what it gave her that nothing else could→ The hard seasons behind the newsletter — and what kept her going→ What 100+ conversations with working parents revealed that nobody wants to say out loud→ What dual ambition actually looks like from the inside — the full picture, not just the highlight reel

For the mother who knows that creating something of her own isn't indulgent.

It's necessary.

All views expressed are Rashi's personal opinions and do not reflect the views of any organisation she may be a part of.

My period leaked in a store. And honestly? It made me think.

Because the version of me from 5 or 6 years ago would have been mortified. This version found it more inconvenient than anything else. And the fact that I'm talking about it on a podcast says everything.

In this episode:→ What that moment revealed about how far I've come - and how little I saw it coming→ Childbirth as the first barrier -how giving birth stripped away my body consciousness in a way nothing else could→ From hiding in toilet cubicles to changing rooms, naked swims and podcast microphones - the quiet journey to feeling at home in my own body→ How body confidence became life confidence - and why I'm taking more risks now than I ever did before

For the mother who didn't realise motherhood was building her confidence until she was already standing in it. 💛

She worked while she was in labour. Not because she wanted to. Because no plan existed.

And in that moment -- somewhere between contractions and conference calls - Alexa Starks decided she was done helping women survive a broken system. It was time to fix it.

So she did something most of us only dream about. She packed up her family, left America, and moved to the Netherlands - for schools that trust children to be children, healthcare that trusts the body to heal, and streets where her children could simply belong.

And then she got to work.

In this episode:→ Working while in labour - the moment everything changed→ Leaving America - what the decision really cost and what it gave her family→ Executive Moms and Mothered Magazine - why she stopped coaching women to cope and started fixing the system→ The Maternal Strengths Report - 97% of mothers feel they became better leaders. Only 20% had a return to work plan.→ National Working Motherhood Week - one million working mothers, free practical support, this September

This one is for the mother who has ever quietly survived something that should never have been her problem to solve alone.

And for anyone who has looked at the life they built and found the courage to build a better one.

My 5 year old son threw something and broke it.

He apologised. And a few days later I almost brought it up again but stopped myself.

Because his apology was meant to close the matter. And dragging it back out wouldn't have been self protection. It would have been punishment.

That moment changed how I think about forgiveness entirely.

In this episode:→ The incident: what happened, what I almost did, and what stopped me→ What motherhood teaches us about forgiveness - how raising children turns it from a grand gesture into a quiet daily choice→ The wider application: friendships, relationships, and ourselves - the difference between forgetting and forgiving, between keeping score and choosing the relationship→ Modelling forgiveness: my son is sensitive and hard on himself - what I show him now about letting things go becomes the voice in his head when he makes his own mistakes

For the mother who wants to love better, hold things more loosely - and raise children who know how to forgive themselves too.