Mambition

She walked into the Dragons Den at 9 months pregnant.

She walked out with £50,000. Her son arrived a week later.

Olivia is the co-founder of Cubbi — the UK's first discount platform for new and expecting parents.

But this episode is not just about the Den moment. It is about everything that came before it and the conviction that carried them through when nothing else could.

In this episode:
→ Pitching Dragons Den at 9 months pregnant — the decision, the room and what happened next
→ What it actually cost to build Cubbi before anyone was watching
→ The sister dynamic — building something this significant with someone you trust
→ The free coffee that got a new mother out of the house for the first time all week
→ What motherhood gave her as a founder that she could not have had otherwise
→ Starting before you are ready and why conviction matters more than timing

For the mother who is paying attention to the threads quietly coming together in her own life.

Sometimes the timing that looks wrong is exactly right.

When I was dating I was filtering for career ambition and drive above almost everything else.

Nobody told me that the game changes completely when you have children.

Because it turns out that what actually determines how you show up as a mother — whether you can work, build something, stay fit, stay sane — is not your own ability. It is your capacity. And capacity is shaped mainly by the support around you.

For me that support comes in the form of my mother in law. As someone who lost my own mum young, that village is not just helpful. It carries me.

And it made me think about everything I was not filtering for when I was dating. His parents. His level of kindness on a bad day. Whether he could hold the children independently and fully. Whether your parenting styles would complement each other over the long run.

Nobody tells you to look for that. But maybe they should.

In this episode:
→ Why it is not ability that determines what mothers can achieve — it is capacity
→ What I was filtering for when dating versus what actually matters when you have kids
→ The village, the in laws and why their support changes everything
→ Why parenting styles that complement each other matter more than shared interests

And honestly? I did not plan any of this. I just happened to fall into the right village.

It is not a holiday when you go away with small children.

It is a change of location. The chaos comes with you!

But our first all inclusive family holiday was actually memorable for the right reasons. It was nice to be somewhere designed for exactly the chaos you are carrying.

On the plane my daughter was an official flight attendant helper. She made friends with the family sitting next to her before we had even taken off.

By the time we landed she had already lived a full social life.

And that was just the journey there.

In this episode:
→ Why being surrounded by other families in full chaotic flow is one of the most reassuring things you can do as a parent
→ Reading a novel for the sake of it
→ Why the all inclusive format is one that I am tempted to repeat every single year

For the parent who is wondering whether a family holiday is actually worth it.

It is. Just not in the way you expect.

My 3 year old daughter had a mean girl experience on holiday this week.

Every instinct in me wanted to swoop in and fix it. But instead I stepped in gently, with humour, and tried to show her something more useful.

As we walked away I told her that sometimes people will be mean. And we practised her stern voice together so she is ready for next time.

In this episode:
→ Fighting the immediate parental instinct to swoop in and fix everything
→ Why I stepped in with humour rather than to punish or humiliate
→ The long game — building resilience versus building dependence
→ Parenting is just trying different things and hoping you land somewhere good enough

I do not know if I got it right. But I am hoping I got close enough.

You tried the sleep method and it did not work.

That is not your fault.

Nicole Ratcliffe knows this better than most.

Chronic sleep deprivation after having her child derailed a high-earning career, led to redundancy, and forced her into the most difficult period of her life.

What came out of it was a complete reinvention — and a mission to change the way we treat sleep at every level.

Because sleep is not a nice to have. It is the foundation that everything else sits on. Your work. Your relationships. Your ability to show up as a parent. Your mental health.

When the sleep goes, everything else quietly starts to follow.

In this episode:
→ How sleep deprivation ended Nicole's career and what she built from the wreckage
→ Why the sleep industry is solving the wrong problem — and why one size fits all advice was never going to work for your family
→ The research connecting sleep deprivation to parental depression across 1,000+ parents
→ Why sleep health needs to be treated like a seatbelt — non-negotiable and built into the system

For the ambitious mother running on empty and wondering why everything feels harder than it should.

This might be why.

The passport arrived. One day before we left. 😅

Living on the edge or what? Maybe the passport situation was not just a stressful logistical nightmare. Maybe it was a lesson I clearly still needed.

Because the truth is, parenting humbles you constantly. Even with the best plan in place, things will go wrong. And the only way to actually enjoy this season — really enjoy it, not just survive it — is to let go of the need for everything to be perfect. Including yourself.

In this episode:
→ Closing the passport loop
→ Why self forgiveness is not optional in parenting, it is essential
→ How shortening the gap between a mistake and moving on changes everything
→ What our children learn from watching us handle things going wrong
→ Why grace is something you must give yourself over and over again

For the parent who is still being a little too hard on themselves. You are doing your best and it is enough.

She fled war as a child. Fast forward to today.

Zahra Mohamed is the founder of Alcyone Law, a specialist UK immigration law firm, a British Muslim woman, and a mother of three including five year old twins. She has spent 14 years navigating a legal system that was not always designed to welcome her — as a client, as a woman, or as a mother.

In this episode:
→ Fleeing war as a child and how that shaped her path into immigration law
→ Being mistaken for the interpreter in her own courtroom — and what she chose to do with that moment
→ Why she is building a law firm entirely on her own terms
→ The mental load and navigating two very different parenting styles
→ Why our backgrounds are not barriers — they are the very things that shape our strengths

For the woman whose past is heavy but who chooses to build towards the light anyway.

Two passport blunders. One recovering perfectionist. And a lot of learning to laugh at myself.

This episode is about what sits underneath both of those moments. The version of me who used to ruminate for days over a mistake and who took everything seriously.

Motherhood is the chaos that humbles you.

It is also the thing that quietly teaches you that perfection is a myth.

That even the best laid plans will fall apart. That the gap between mistake and self forgiveness does not have to be as long as you think.

Mine is getting shorter. I am learning to laugh at the madness a little more. To not take everything quite so seriously. To enjoy the chaos.

In this episode:
→ Why perfectionism and high standards are not the same thing
→ What motherhood will teach you about self-forgiveness
→ Why the gap between mistake and moving on is something you can actually shrink
→ What I am trying to model for my children about grace and getting it wrong

For the mother who is still a little too hard on herself.

This one is for you. 💛

They were babies yesterday.

And yet this September our boys are both heading into Year One. Which means the baby years, the toddler years, the defining early childhood years that felt simultaneously endless and impossibly fast — are behind us.

In this episode Alex and I sit with that for a moment.

We also talk about where we both are with work right now — and how our ambition has quietly shifted.

We both want careers that are aligned with the kind of mothers we actually want to be.

And then there is the summer. Six weeks and endless juggle. The very real need to stay present with our children while not letting everything we have built quietly unravel.

In this episode:
→ How fast the early years go — and what it feels like to look back at the babies they were
→ Why ambition looks different now and why that is not a bad thing
→ How we are both trying to align our careers with the mothers we want to be
→ The summer holiday juggle — presence, work and how we are planning to hold both

For the mother who blinked and suddenly has a school aged child.

My 3 year old experienced five separate, genuine injustices this week. The discovery that her brother was carried in my tummy first. The milk poured without permission.

In her mind, every single one was a devastating betrayal.

I laugh and cry in equal measure. But I know she is not wrong to feel it. She just does not have the capacity to regulate those feelings yet. That is not her job right now. That is mine.

This episode is about that. About what it actually takes to show up for small, intense, beautifully overwhelming people.

About why doing something for yourself in the moment can feel completely selfish — and why zooming out changes everything.

At this stage, self care is not selfishness. It is infrastructure.

In this episode:
→ Why children are not irrational — they are mainly just unregulated, and that distinction matters
→ Why regulating your own emotions has to come first
→ Why the run you almost did not go on, the hour you almost cancelled, pays off in ways the moment cannot show you
→ Why self care is not a luxury — it is how you show up for their versions of injustice without losing your mind

For the parent who knows the emotional stakes are higher at this stage than anyone warned them about. 💛