Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood, & Life

No time management hack is going to fix how you feel right now. I've watched brilliant, high-achieving women (myself included) get unbelievably efficient at running a life that drains the shit out of them. Time && capacity are two different animals, && most of us are only managing one of them.

In this episode we'll explore what actually expands your capacity, the small shift that took a client from resentment to ideas, + the announcement I've been bursting at the seams to share… so stay till the end.

TOPICS WE EXPLORE

• The question that sits underneath "remove before you add"
• What your calendar is lying to you about
• The danger of getting really good at a draining life
• What your four walls are doing to your capacity
• The emotional capacity that nobody is talking about
• The small shift that turned a client's resentment into ideas
• The announcement I'm bursting at the seams to share

THE POINT

Having the capacity to hold more does not mean doing more. Decide what you want more room for, then make it. 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• Encore, an 11-month mastermind with Ash && Delia - doors open 11/1 and early bird bonuses go away 11/11 (11 spots only)
• Delia Monk
• Episode 213: Shamelessly Getting Out of My Own Way
• Work with Ash

Are you loving it? Send Ash a text!

MORE ABOUT ASH

I'm Ash McDonald — the Entrepreneur's Therapist. Trained therapist, seasoned entrepreneur, mom of 3, && the person you call when your business coach doesn't get your brain && your therapist doesn't get your business.

I built the thing I couldn't find anywhere else: whole-picture support that holds your strategy && your humanity in the same conversation at the same time. 

LINKS:

• Work with me 1:1 → Deep Cuts
• Fast-track your results → The Green Room
• Solve one thing right now → Studio Sessions
• Burnout-proof your life && business → Mixtape
• Get your free podcast playlists → The Soundcheck
• Weekly emails that tell you what your business coach won't && your therapist can't → Subscribe to The Beat
• Website: ashmcdonaldmentoring.com

You're all in… you know exactly what you want… you've got the energy, the ideas, the vision but it feels impossible to actually move!? This is not a motivation problem, it's actually a friction problem and there are four specific places it tends to show up with most of my clients.

TOPICS WE EXPLORE

• Vague ideas become paralyzing before you even begin the work
• The capacity trap that no amount of time management can fix
• The emotional cost you're not naming that's keeping you stuck
• How to create the immediacy your brain needs without creating a crisis
• Why discomfort is information
• The pressure-powered system ambitious women accidentally build
• What it means to remove before you add

THE POINT

You don't need to feel perfectly focused, motivated, regulated, or ready before you begin. You only need to understand what friction is making it impossible to move, so that you can name the thing holding you back from taking action && MOVE.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• Work with Ash

Are you loving it? Send Ash a text!

MORE ABOUT ASH

I'm Ash McDonald — the Entrepreneur's Therapist. Trained therapist, seasoned entrepreneur, mom of 3, && the person you call when your business coach doesn't get your brain && your therapist doesn't get your business.

I built the thing I couldn't find anywhere else: whole-picture support that holds your strategy && your humanity in the same conversation at the same time. 

LINKS:

• Work with me 1:1 → Deep Cuts
• Fast-track your results → The Green Room
• Solve one thing right now → Studio Sessions
• Burnout-proof your life && business → Mixtape
• Get your free podcast playlists → The Soundcheck
• Weekly emails that tell you what your business coach won't && your therapist can't → Subscribe to The Beat
• Website: ashmcdonaldmentoring.com

There's a version of you that only shows up when nobody needs anything from you. This episode is about her… what she knows, what she wants, what she's a little jealous of, && what she has absolutely no shame saying out loud. This is a go for it pep talk, my friend.

This episode is a reminder to get to know yourself a little bit more as I share a completely unedited version of me, (recorded naked in a bed in Rome… obviously).

TOPICS WE EXPLORE

• The magnetizing portal of living unedited 
• What I am wanting more of right now
• The jealousy mirror we all need to look into 
• Triggers that can derail or inspire you as an entrepreneur 
• What I want people saying about me when I'm not in the room
• How to witness your brilliance and weakness with love 
• Why the magic we give most is usually what we need most

THE POINT

Stop editing yourself into someone easier to digest. The unedited version of you is not a liability… she's the whole fucking point.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• Work with Ash
• Shamelessly Ambitious Soundcheck (free curated episode playlists)

Are you loving it? Send Ash a text!

MORE ABOUT ASH

I'm Ash McDonald — the Entrepreneur's Therapist. Trained therapist, seasoned entrepreneur, mom of 3, && the person you call when your business coach doesn't get your brain && your therapist doesn't get your business.

I built the thing I couldn't find anywhere else: whole-picture support that holds your strategy && your humanity in the same conversation at the same time. 

LINKS:

• Work with me 1:1 → Deep Cuts
• Fast-track your results → The Green Room
• Solve one thing right now → Studio Sessions
• Burnout-proof your life && business → Mixtape
• Get your free podcast playlists → The Soundcheck
• Weekly emails that tell you what your business coach won't && your therapist can't → Subscribe to The Beat
• Website: ashmcdonaldmentoring.com

There’s a strategy I’ve been using in my marriage, my parenting, my friendships, and even with myself that gets me more of what I want without requiring anyone else to lose. And somewhere between two days of nonstop conversation in a tiny village outside Barcelona, I realized… technically, it might be manipulation. So let’s talk about it.

TOPICS WE EXPLORE

• The wildly underrated art of letting yourself be taken care of
• What hyper-independence cost me in my marriage
• Why being needed might matter more than we realize
• The rise of purposelessness in men
• The friendship piece we don’t talk about enough as ambitious women
• The two things I bring into almost every hard conversation
• Why disarming someone changes what becomes possible next
• The parenting strategy that gets my kids to actually talk to me
• How I “manipulate” the people I love

THE POINT

Maybe getting more of what you want from the people you love isn’t about asking harder, explaining better, or controlling the outcome. Maybe it’s about understanding people well enough to create the conditions where you both get more of what you need.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• Work with Ash
• P.S I’m back on socials so you can follow along on IG

Are you loving it? Send Ash a text!

MORE ABOUT ASH

I'm Ash McDonald — the Entrepreneur's Therapist. Trained therapist, seasoned entrepreneur, mom of 3, && the person you call when your business coach doesn't get your brain && your therapist doesn't get your business.

I built the thing I couldn't find anywhere else: whole-picture support that holds your strategy && your humanity in the same conversation at the same time. 

LINKS:

• Work with me 1:1 → Deep Cuts
• Fast-track your results → The Green Room
• Solve one thing right now → Studio Sessions
• Burnout-proof your life && business → Mixtape
• Get your free podcast playlists → The Soundcheck
• Weekly emails that tell you what your business coach won't && your therapist can't → Subscribe to The Beat
• Website: ashmcdonaldmentoring.com

I recorded this from my car on the way to a networking event because I couldn't wait. It started as a rough morning with my middle son && turned into the most important realization I've had in a while. The habit that’s making my life harder these days is a perspective problem. && I caught myself teaching my son something I clearly needed to hear myself.

TOPICS WE EXPLORE

• A rough school morning && what my son was really scared of
• The seed metaphor I used with him && how it landed
• Vulnerability begets vulnerability: how to actually get to the root with your kid
• What we focus on grows, for better && for worse
• I have to vs I get to && why the difference is everything
• Where I caught myself watering the wrong weeds
• How victim mentality shows up without looking like victim mentality
• What this has to do with the reclamation I'm in the middle of

THE POINT

What you focus on grows. && if you've accidentally been living in “I have to” instead of “I get to,” everything starts to feel like a weight you're dragging instead of a life you're building. 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• Episode 208: Shamelessly Reclaiming My Edge
• Episode 209: Shamelessly Practicing Ambition Again
• MIXTAPE waitlist (MIXTAPE is open now through September 30th. Waitlist only.)
• Work with Ash

Are you loving it? Send Ash a text!

MORE ABOUT ASH

I'm Ash McDonald — the Entrepreneur's Therapist. Trained therapist, seasoned entrepreneur, mom of 3, && the person you call when your business coach doesn't get your brain && your therapist doesn't get your business.

I built the thing I couldn't find anywhere else: whole-picture support that holds your strategy && your humanity in the same conversation at the same time. 

LINKS:

• Work with me 1:1 → Deep Cuts
• Fast-track your results → The Green Room
• Solve one thing right now → Studio Sessions
• Burnout-proof your life && business → Mixtape
• Get your free podcast playlists → The Soundcheck
• Weekly emails that tell you what your business coach won't && your therapist can't → Subscribe to The Beat
• Website: ashmcdonaldmentoring.com

This is a follow-up to my last (Episode 208), so make sure you listen to that first if you haven't already. Last week I announced the 90-day challenge to reclaim my edge && this week I'm getting specific: here are the actual rules, the micro-commitments, && what you're going to see from me starting October 1st. 

TOPICS WE EXPLORE

• Why I can't decide if I'm done with entrepreneurship while only half participating in it
• The difference between a vague intention && an observable behavior
• Showing up on social media every single day for 90 days && why
• Practicing discomfort as a deliberate strategy
• Protecting my attention && what that looks like in practice
• Prioritizing income-producing activities for the first time in a long time
• Why I'm collecting data, not trying to be perfect
• The thing I wish someone had grabbed me by the shoulders && told me years ago
• This isn't about finding the old version of me. It's about reigniting a new one.

THE POINT

I can't accurately decide whether I'm done with entrepreneurship while I'm only half participating in it. So I'm going all in for 90 days to find out. The answer lives in the evidence, not the thinking.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• Episode 208: Shamelessly Reclaiming My Edge
• MIXTAPE waitlist (opens September 21st, waitlist only)
• Work with Ash

Are you loving it? Send Ash a text!

MORE ABOUT ASH

I'm Ash McDonald — the Entrepreneur's Therapist. Trained therapist, seasoned entrepreneur, mom of 3, && the person you call when your business coach doesn't get your brain && your therapist doesn't get your business.

I built the thing I couldn't find anywhere else: whole-picture support that holds your strategy && your humanity in the same conversation at the same time. 

LINKS:

• Work with me 1:1 → Deep Cuts
• Fast-track your results → The Green Room
• Solve one thing right now → Studio Sessions
• Burnout-proof your life && business → Mixtape
• Get your free podcast playlists → The Soundcheck
• Weekly emails that tell you what your business coach won't && your therapist can't → Subscribe to The Beat
• Website: ashmcdonaldmentoring.com

I'm giving myself 90 days to find out what happens when I genuinely start going for it again. This is the formal announcement, the whole messy truth, && the reason I'm coming back to social media for a little bit.

Also… MIXTAPE opens September 21st to waitlisters only. ;)

TOPICS WE EXPLORE

• The slow unraveling nobody notices until it's already happened
• Why slowing down && soft living literally stole my fire
• The moment I realized I'd been laying down for a few years
• What I do know even when I don't know what I want
• The intolerance for risk I developed without realizing it
• Why comfort is not found in avoiding discomfort
• The 90-day challenge: locking in for Q4
• Why I'm coming back to social media even though I stand by leaving
• What MIXTAPE is actually built for && why I've been living inside it
• What I'm terrified of && going anyway

THE POINT

I've been thinking my way to answers for years, but honestly… thinking doesn't give you answers, action does. So I'm taking 90 days to find out: do I still want this? && I'm going all in to find out.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• Episode 206: Shamelessly Not Having It Figured Out
• Episode 207: Shamelessly Unaligned: Doing Shit I Don't Want to Do
• MIXTAPE waitlist (opens September 21st, waitlist only)
• Work with Ash

Are you loving it? Send Ash a text!

MORE ABOUT ASH

I'm Ash McDonald — the Entrepreneur's Therapist. Trained therapist, seasoned entrepreneur, mom of 3, && the person you call when your business coach doesn't get your brain && your therapist doesn't get your business.

I built the thing I couldn't find anywhere else: whole-picture support that holds your strategy && your humanity in the same conversation at the same time. 

LINKS:

• Work with me 1:1 → Deep Cuts
• Fast-track your results → The Green Room
• Solve one thing right now → Studio Sessions
• Burnout-proof your life && business → Mixtape
• Get your free podcast playlists → The Soundcheck
• Weekly emails that tell you what your business coach won't && your therapist can't → Subscribe to The Beat
• Website: ashmcdonaldmentoring.com

Last episode I got raw about uncertainty && not having it figured out. This one is the follow-up… because once you admit you've been standing still, the next question is: what does moving actually require? && the honest answer is sometimes it requires doing the shit you don't want to do, whether it feels aligned or not.

TOPICS WE EXPLORE

• Why "does this feel aligned?" can become a very sophisticated excuse
• The difference between discomfort as a message && discomfort as an invitation
• Why discomfort isn't the same as wrong
• Does your behavior match what you say you want?
• The hard && fast rule that keeps our family sane
• Feeling fully alive requires willingly experiencing shit that doesn't feel good
• Love && grief. Ambition && disappointment. Business && selling. You don't get one without the other.
• What I think this next season is actually going to require of me

THE POINT

Somewhere along the way we started treating discomfort as evidence that something is wrong… it isn't. The version of you that goes all in is still in there, and now it's time to resurrect her.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• Episode 206: Shamelessly Not Having It Figured Out
• MIXTAPE waitlist (opens September 21st)
• Work with Ash

Are you loving it? Send Ash a text!

MORE ABOUT ASH

I'm Ash McDonald — the Entrepreneur's Therapist. Trained therapist, seasoned entrepreneur, mom of 3, && the person you call when your business coach doesn't get your brain && your therapist doesn't get your business.

I built the thing I couldn't find anywhere else: whole-picture support that holds your strategy && your humanity in the same conversation at the same time. 

LINKS:

• Work with me 1:1 → Deep Cuts
• Fast-track your results → The Green Room
• Solve one thing right now → Studio Sessions
• Burnout-proof your life && business → Mixtape
• Get your free podcast playlists → The Soundcheck
• Weekly emails that tell you what your business coach won't && your therapist can't → Subscribe to The Beat
• Website: ashmcdonaldmentoring.com

I didn't know what I was gonna say when I hit record, truthfully… I'm in a funky season. I'm newly 39, && I'm noticing something I didn't expect: the more I know, the less certain I become. This episode is me processing that out loud.

We're talking about the certainty epidemic, why we buy it, what it's costing us, && what I actually think it means to be a 39-year-old woman who is ambitious as hell && has absolutely no idea what comes next. This one is unpolished, unscripted && exactly what it needs to be.

TOPICS WE EXPLORE

• What the data actually says about stress at 39 && why it felt like a permission slip
• The hidden load epidemic && why millennial women are the most burned out demographic
• Admitting out loud that I sometimes want a life where I don't have to work
• Why certainty is profitable && what that means for who you're buying from
• Homeschooling, travel, business models && the things I've changed my mind on
• All in or all out: my unpopular belief about half-measures in business
• What I actually want back: unbearable belief that success is inevitable

THE POINT

Maybe the wisdom isn't in finally having all the answers. Maybe it's becoming a hell of a lot less threatened by the fact that you don't. && maybe the unbearable belief that success is inevitable is the only thing that ever actually mattered.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• Wealth Walks (WLTH Walks, Denver)
• MIXTAPE waitlist
• Work with Ash

Are you loving it? Send Ash a text!

MORE ABOUT ASH

I'm Ash McDonald — the Entrepreneur's Therapist. Trained therapist, seasoned entrepreneur, mom of 3, && the person you call when your business coach doesn't get your brain && your therapist doesn't get your business.

I built the thing I couldn't find anywhere else: whole-picture support that holds your strategy && your humanity in the same conversation at the same time. 

LINKS:

• Work with me 1:1 → Deep Cuts
• Fast-track your results → The Green Room
• Solve one thing right now → Studio Sessions
• Burnout-proof your life && business → Mixtape
• Get your free podcast playlists → The Soundcheck
• Weekly emails that tell you what your business coach won't && your therapist can't → Subscribe to The Beat
• Website: ashmcdonaldmentoring.com

It's my birthday week, I'm turning 39, && I'm coming in with a raw one. This is a full behind-the-scenes Ash Unplugged episode, which means personal updates, business updates, && the thing I've been sitting with lately that I had to say out loud: it's kind of chic to know where you suck.

We're talking about the gaps that actually cost us, why self-awareness is the highest-leverage business skill most people aren't using, && a list of things I genuinely believe are underrated right now. Plus: what's been hard this summer, what's coming with MIXTAPE, && why I'm coming back to social media for a few weeks.

TOPICS WE EXPLORE

• Turning 39 && what this season of life actually feels like
• What's been hard this summer 
• MIXTAPE opens September 21st && what's inside it
• Coming back to social media for the first time since April
• Why "fake it till you make it" isn't the whole story
• Self-witnessing over perfectionism && what that looks like with a client
• Self-awareness as the highest-leverage business skill you're not talking about

THE POINT

People don't plateau because of their weaknesses, they plateau because they pretend not to have any. Knowing where you suck is not a liability… It's the most honest && efficient thing you can do for your business && your life.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• MIXTAPE waitlist (opens September 21st)
• ashmcdonaldmentoring.com (new website && rebrand)
• Work with Ash

Are you loving it? Send Ash a text!

MORE ABOUT ASH

I'm Ash McDonald — the Entrepreneur's Therapist. Trained therapist, seasoned entrepreneur, mom of 3, && the person you call when your business coach doesn't get your brain && your therapist doesn't get your business.

I built the thing I couldn't find anywhere else: whole-picture support that holds your strategy && your humanity in the same conversation at the same time. 

LINKS:

• Work with me 1:1 → Deep Cuts
• Fast-track your results → The Green Room
• Solve one thing right now → Studio Sessions
• Burnout-proof your life && business → Mixtape
• Get your free podcast playlists → The Soundcheck
• Weekly emails that tell you what your business coach won't && your therapist can't → Subscribe to The Beat
• Website: ashmcdonaldmentoring.com