She was told art wouldn't pay. So she did the sensible thing.

Years working in a law firm - capable, competent, but never quite in her own vision. She was good at it. And something was always slightly off.

It took a power cut, a redundancy, and a breastfeeding epiphany to crack things open. And she found her way back.

Leanne Pearce is a portrait artist, twice shortlisted for Portrait Artist of the Year, and the woman who walks into the moments most of us look away from - the ICU, the hospice, the families mid-grief.

She calls it care work. After this conversation, you'll understand exactly why.

In this episode:→ The creative identity she was talked out of - and how she reclaimed it→ What it actually costs to sit with grieving families and turn that into art→ The empathy that is both her greatest gift and her greatest challenge→ How she built her most important work in the margins of motherhood

For the woman who was told to be practical - and never quite stopped hearing the pull of something more.

Raising children is expensive. Nobody is pretending otherwise.

But motherhood will also expose everything about how you use money - the stories you tell yourself, the happiness you think you can buy, the things you spend on without ever asking why.

In this episode:

• The myth: My daughter played with homemade playdough for four hours at nursery. At Christmas, the presents lasted 30 minutes. The box they came in lasted longer than the toys.
• How we see money: Are we spending for them — or for us? And where do we draw the line between giving our children everything and teaching them that everything needs to be given?
• What money is actually for: Freedom. Experiences. The people and passions that truly matter.

For the mother who already knows money isn't the villain.

Unconscious spending is.

Maternity redundancy isn't just an HR issue. It's a confidence heist.

Caroline didn't just lose a job. She lost her professional identity, her routine, the quiet confidence that comes from knowing you're good at something and being seen for it.

According to Pregnant Then Screwed, up to 74,000 women in the UK are forced out of work every year while pregnant or on maternity leave. The process is often technically legal. And almost always dehumanising.

Caroline's was no different. A calendar invite. A glass-walled room. Colleagues watching. No privacy. No dignity.

She went on to found Upsource, a multi-award winning VA agency, host her own podcast for mothers in business, and become a Goldman Sachs 10K alumna. She built all of it after the glass-walled room.

In this episode we talk about what that day actually felt like, why outsourcing is really about seeing time differently when you have children, why financial independence is non-negotiable for women, and what it genuinely looks like to build a business alongside motherhood — the real version, not the highlight reel.

This isn't about resilience as a buzzword.

It's about building a life that couldn't be taken from you in a glass-walled room - one your children grow up watching you choose every single day.

Hot coffee. A gym membership. A pair of earphones. None of it costs much - and all of it changed everything.

In this episode:

• The thermos flask: The tiny thing that makes me feel like I got the best end of the deal - even at the park on a Tuesday morning.
• The gym: Why I leave the house when my kids do - and what it means to meet them again from a place where I've done something for me.
• Earphones: On protecting the things that make you feel most like yourself, even when time is scarce.

For the mother who knows she doesn't have to choose between being present for her kids and building herself.

You can do both -and it doesn't have to cost a lot.

Ashmita Randhawa is Director of R&D at Sunderland Software City, Visiting Professor at the National Innovation Centre for Data, and Co-Lead at the Hartree Centre.

She has led global teams, holds a PhD, and is deeply passionate about the role of AI and data in shaping what comes next.

She is also a mum to a 7-year-old daughter.

Her mum passed away before she could see her become a mother. That loss is woven through everything - the warmth she brings to every room, the community she builds everywhere she lands, the mother she has chosen to become.

In this episode:→ Building community when your family isn't close — why it requires intentionality→ Raising a daughter across two cultures and making sure she holds both with confidence→ Do-nothing days alongside swimming and dancing - teaching stillness and curiosity in equal measure→ AI, curiosity and how to talk to your children about the world they're actually growing up in→ The legacy of a mother who made everyone feel warm and seen

This one is for the mum building belonging from scratch.

And for anyone who has lost someone and found, quietly, that grief became the thing that grounds them.

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

Mother's Day just passed. There were flowers. There was cake. And then I went to the gym.

In this episode:

Being celebrated: What it means to receive fully — and why so many mothers rush past it.

This is the life I once dreamed of: Why motherhood is something I never, ever take for granted.

After the cake is eaten: The other part of Mother's Day nobody talks about — pouring into yourself. Deliberately. Unapologetically.

The mum I am becoming: Why the inner work I do on myself is the most important work I do for my children.

For the mother who loves being celebrated — and knows that choosing herself is part of the celebration too.

Work isn't just a paycheck — for mums who care, it's identity, purpose, and proof that they exist beyond their caring role.

Charlie Beswick spent 16 years as a teacher while caring for her son with complex needs. When she had to step back from full-time teaching, she didn't just lose a job — she lost a piece of herself.

In this episode, Charlie opens up about the invisible labour, the false choice society places on mother-carers — be a devoted mum OR have a career — and why that binary is not only wrong, but damaging.

"Give us an inch and we'll give you a mile." — Charlie Beswick

This episode is for the mums doing the invisible work before the working day even begins.

The ones carrying a life of logistics, appointments, and quiet grief behind the scenes. But it's also more than that — it's for anyone who has scrolled past a "typical family" Christmas post and felt the weight of what could have been. You're not alone. And this is exactly the conversation you didn't know you needed to hear.

March is International Women's Day. It's also the month Tiffany's mum was buried. Celebration and grief, side by side.

In this episode:

March: The collision of celebrating women while grieving the one she lost.

The double-edged sword: How losing her mum made her aware that time is finite—a gift (discipline, intention, clarity) and a weight (pressure, exhaustion, struggle to be easy on herself).

Grief changes shape: For years, she was "fine." Then she became a mother. And grief took a new form—recognising what her mum lost, what she must have felt leaving young children behind.

The woman she is today: How grief shaped her—starting Mambition, taking risks, loving herself, and the type of mother she's becoming.

For mothers navigating grief, time awareness, and the resilience born from loss.

The formidable duo are back and celebrating! 5 years of motherhood.

In this episode:

Raising two completely different children—what works for one crashes and burns with the other. Parenting = constant humility.

A train journey that gave Tiffany perspective: seeing quiet teens reminded her this chaotic phase is fleeting (cue: gratitude mixed with exhaustion).

Living in the margins: building businesses, working on yourself, making coffee happen—all in the cracks.

Trench brain: accidentally stealing trolleys at Aldi, locking gym lockers without bags, and just trying to function.

Alex on reality vs. expectations: what she thought motherhood would be vs. what it actually is.

The 5-year immune system battle: one sickness bug to another. Surrender accepted.

For mothers 5 years in who are tired, grateful, and doing their best in the margins.

I sat opposite a dad with two teenagers on the train to London.

His kids: quiet, on phones, playing cards. Comfortable silence. Happy family.

Mine: singing, asking endless questions, needing me constantly.

I saw my future.

But it wasn't as simple as "that looks easier" or "I'll miss this chaos."

In this episode:

The perspective shift: seeing the future brings gratitude to the present—not pressure, not guilt, just perspective.

The parenting paradox: he probably looked at my chaos and wistfully remembered when his were little. I looked at his quiet teens and thought about the future. We're all in this weird middle—wanting what the other has.

Why glimpsing the future matters: it's a reset. A reminder that this phase is temporary. Every once in a while, that glimpse is helpful.

The parenting time warp: the days are long, the years are short. A single day can feel endless, but suddenly they're 10, 15.