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

Ashley McDonald, Therapist & Nervous System First Business Mentor

Shamelessly Ambitious is an honest, grounding, and vulnerable podcast for ambitious, emotionally intelligent women who are done proving themselves, tired of living in constant high-functioning burnout, and craving a life and business that actually feel good. Hosted by Ash McDonald—therapist, nervous-system-first business mentor, and speaker this show blends clinical expertise with lived experience to deliver nervous system tools, embodied strategies, and radical permission so you can expand your capacity, root into emotional steadiness, and build sustainable success that supports your whole life. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, stretched too thin, caught in productivity guilt, or stuck running on stress, this podcast meets you where you are—with therapeutic insights, embodied practices, and heartfelt stories that create real shifts. Whether you’re navigating motherhood, entrepreneurship, or the messy middle of redefining success, each episode helps you slow down, regulate, and return to a felt sense of safety in your body. With over a decade of experience at the intersection of therapy and leadership, Ash pulls back the curtain on what really works—offering grounded guidance you can apply in real life. What you’ll hear: Honest conversations about burnout recovery, nervous system regulation, and redefining successSomatic tools, meditations, and practices that build inner safety and capacityStories of motherhood, mom-life, ambition, and the courage to create a life and business that feel rich and realIf you’re asking the following questions, you’re in the right place: How do I stop tying my worth to productivity?How do I know if I’m experiencing high-functioning burnout and what do I do about it?How do I balance motherhood and leadership without losing myself?How do I calm my body when I feel overwhelmed or overstimulated?This is the podcast for when you’re ready to reclaim peace, expand what you can hold, and create success that doesn’t cost you yourself. Tune in and take the next step toward a regulated, rooted, and deeply fulfilling life.

  1. 4d ago

    201. The Grief of Losing Your Parents: Caregiving, Business & Keeping Life Moving

    Welcome to the Grief Series, a collection of conversations about the grief woven throughout our lives with some extraordinary women bringing their raw, vulnerable stories to the mic. I hope you see yourself somewhere in these stories. … This episode is for anyone who has ever had to keep showing up while watching someone they love disappear. My guest, Cait Howard, has experienced profound loss while building a business, raising three little girls, and navigating the many roles life has asked of her. Somehow, through all of it, she has kept moving forward. She brought so much honesty, wisdom, and heart to this conversation, and I think it’s one you’ll carry with you long after it ends. TOPICS WE EXPLORE Losing two parents in a short period of time Being a new mom && a caregiver at the same timeThe guilt of being pulled in every direction at onceHow subconscious work changed the way she moved through her mom's illnessBig G grief && little G griefHow she protects herself through the griefNavigating a business partnership with your husband through lossWhat she wishes someone had told herTHE POINT Grief doesn't have an endpoint. It has seasons && the only way through it is to let it be your own. ABOUT CAIT Cait Howard is the founder of Amplify Boutique, a podcast launch and management agency, and co-host of the Podcasting Moms Conference. She helps women get their voices && messages into the world through podcasting… she does it from just outside Nashville with her husband && their three little girls. Find her on Instagram @heycaithoward and at amplifyboutique.com. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Amplify Boutique (Cait's podcast agency)Shamelessly Ambitious Soundcheck (free curated episode playlists)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 CutsFast-track your results → The Green RoomSolve one thing right now → Studio SessionsBurnout-proof your life && business → MixtapeGet your free podcast playlists → The SoundcheckWeekly emails that tell you what your business coach won't && your therapist can't → Subscribe to The BeatWebsite: ashmcdonaldmentoring.com

  2. Jul 21

    200. The Grief of Being Witnessed: What My Husband Really Thinks About Being Married to an Ambitious Woman

    Welcome to the Grief Series, a collection of conversations about the grief woven throughout our lives with some extraordinary women && men bringing their raw, vulnerable stories to the mic. I hope you see yourself somewhere in these stories. --- This is episode 200 and I knew I had to make it count. I brought on my favorite person in the world, my husband Jake, for the most honest conversation we've ever had on record. We went into his grief around identity and purpose when I was the breadwinner, the resentment he carried for years, what it actually costs to be the supportive one, && what had to die in both of us for our marriage to become what it is today. This one is for every ambitious woman who has ever wondered what her partner is really carrying && every man who has never had the language to say it out loud. TOPICS WE EXPLORE Jake's identity crisis when I became the primary breadwinnerThe grief of losing your sense of purpose and provider identityResentment he buried for years and what it actually looked likeHow my ambition triggered his comparison and jealousyWhat I had to stop doing for him to step into who he wanted to beWhy slowing down in my business saved our marriageThe hyper-independence that was costing me the partnership I wantedWhat Jake sees when nobody's watchingWhat ambitious women get wrong about their husbandsTHE POINT Sometimes the grief inside a marriage is a man who doesn't know how to say he feels purposeless. Sometimes it's a woman who's so busy holding everything that she never leaves room to be held. Both of those things can be true at the same time && both of them can change. ABOUT JAKE Jake is my husband, my best friend, my baby daddy, && the person who knows me better than anyone in the world. He showed up to this conversation with zero prep && more honesty than most people manage in a lifetime of therapy. We've been together 16 years, married for 12, raised three kids, traveled the world full time, filed for bankruptcy, rebuilt, && somehow ended up in the best season of our marriage yet.  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Jake's week-long mental health onsite in TennesseeWork 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 CutsFast-track your results → The Green RoomSolve one thing right now → Studio SessionsBurnout-proof your life && business → MixtapeGet your free podcast playlists → The SoundcheckWeekly emails that tell you what your business coach won't && your therapist can't → Subscribe to The BeatWebsite: ashmcdonaldmentoring.com

  3. Jul 14

    199. Your Life Is What You Tolerate: The Mindset Shift That Changed My Summer

    If you've been white-knuckling your way through a season and calling it productivity, this one is going to hit. Sometimes grief isn't about loss… sometimes it's about the story you've been telling yourself so many times it started to feel like fact. A few weeks into summer, I caught my own brain running a narrative I didn't even realize had taken over. I was ending every day feeling like everything was too much and the issue wasn’t my schedule but instead the stories I was telling myself. In this episode I'm sharing exactly what I shifted and how to do it yourself.  TOPICS WE EXPLORE The mental load that doesn't show up on a calendarHow I caught myself in a spiral I didn't even know I was inWhat my inner voice has been dictating in my life  Why your structures and systems can be working and you can still feel like you're drowningThe story your brain tells before you even open your eyesHow to get back in the driver's seat when your mindset has taken overWhy this is a practice && not a one-time fixTHE POINT You have the life you're willing to put up with. The circumstances don't have to change, but the story does. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Ash's new website and brand relaunchWork with Ash (Studio Session, Deep Cuts, The Green Room, MIXTAPE waitlist)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 CutsFast-track your results → The Green RoomSolve one thing right now → Studio SessionsBurnout-proof your life && business → MixtapeGet your free podcast playlists → The SoundcheckWeekly emails that tell you what your business coach won't && your therapist can't → Subscribe to The BeatWebsite: ashmcdonaldmentoring.com

  4. Jul 7

    198. The Grief of Belonging: Friendship, Family & the Village That Never Showed Up

    Welcome to the Grief Series, a collection of conversations about the grief woven throughout our lives with some extraordinary women bringing their raw, vulnerable stories to the mic. I hope you see yourself somewhere in these stories. … This episode is for anyone who has ever looked around and realized the people who were supposed to show up simply haven't. My guest, Emily Merrell, is a connector by nature, the founder of Second Degree Society, a business coach, and a two-time boy mom based in Denver, Colorado. She brought her whole, unfiltered heart to this conversation, and we both cried. We go deep into the grief of friendships that fall apart without explanation, the grandparent village that never materialized, and what it actually costs to need your mom and find that who she is now can't meet you there. TOPICS WE EXPLORE When your friends don't show up for your businessThe slow fade of a deep friendship and the loop that never closesBeing ghosted by people who you thought were your friendsHow ambition triggers the people closest to youThe grandparent grief nobody talks aboutAsking for help once and being let downGrieving your mom while she's still aliveBuilding a village when the one you expected never arrivedTHE POINT Sometimes the hardest grief isn't the loss of someone. It's the slow realization that the village you were counting on was never coming, and you have to build it yourself. ABOUT EMILY Emily Merrell is the founder of Second Degree Society, a networking community that takes the awkward out of connection by handpicking who you meet. She's also a business coach passionate about helping people grow, scale, and open the right doors. She's based in Denver, Colorado, and is a two-time boy mom who turns human connection into both a superpower and a business. Find her on Instagram @emilyamerrell and at seconddegreesociety.com. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Second Degree SocietyLet Them by Mel RobbinsWork 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 CutsFast-track your results → The Green RoomSolve one thing right now → Studio SessionsBurnout-proof your life && business → MixtapeGet your free podcast playlists → The SoundcheckWeekly emails that tell you what your business coach won't && your therapist can't → Subscribe to The BeatWebsite: ashmcdonaldmentoring.com

  5. Jun 30

    197. The Grief of Reinvention: Divorce, Career Pivots & Becoming a New Version of Yourself

    Welcome to the Grief Series, a collection of conversations about the grief woven throughout our lives with some extraordinary women bringing their raw, vulnerable stories to the mic. I hope you see yourself somewhere in these stories. … This episode is for anyone who has ever walked away from something they built, a career, a marriage, an identity, and wondered what the hell comes next. My guest, Delia Monk, has done it more than once. She came to this conversation with the full story: leaving journalism, building a six-figure copywriting business she eventually had to grieve, navigating divorce as a single mom, and making one of the scariest leaps of her professional life. TOPICS WE EXPLORE Leaving the career you built your identity aroundWhen AI devalues your trade overnightThe $12,000 rebrand that didn't save itFear laced with excitement vs. fear laced with scarcityCutting the rope and going all inGrieving the life you thought you'd have after divorceGiving up half your child's childhoodThe scrappy list: 100 ways to make moneyWhat opens up when you finally let goTHE POINT Grief is the price of going all in. You can't grieve what you didn't love, and you can't become who you're meant to be without leaving someone behind. ABOUT DELIA Delia Monk helps people who are ready for their next chapter figure out what that actually looks like and how to talk about it. After years working in messaging and copywriting, she pivoted into transition and pivot coaching, helping women who feel unfulfilled or called toward something new discover what comes next and position it with clarity. She's British, based in Barcelona, and entirely worth finding. Find her on Instagram @delia.monk and at deliamonk.com. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE deliamonk.comThe Mixermind (networking community mentioned by Ash)Work with AshAre 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 CutsFast-track your results → The Green RoomSolve one thing right now → Studio SessionsBurnout-proof your life && business → MixtapeGet your free podcast playlists → The SoundcheckWeekly emails that tell you what your business coach won't && your therapist can't → Subscribe to The BeatWebsite: ashmcdonaldmentoring.com

  6. Jun 23

    196. The Grief of Being Human: Marriage, Motherhood & All the Invisible Losses

    Welcome to the Grief Series, a collection of conversations about the grief woven throughout our lives with some extraordinary women bringing their raw, vulnerable stories to the mic. I hope you see yourself somewhere in these stories. … This episode is for anyone carrying grief that doesn't have an obvious name. My guest, Chrissy Powers, is a therapist, ketamine-assisted psychotherapy practitioner, and someone who has personally held space for me in some of my own deepest healing work. We talk about the grief that lives inside a marriage you're still in, the mourning of watching your children grow up, the loss that comes with deconstructing your religious upbringing, and what it actually takes to feel your way through grief instead of solving your way around it. TOPICS WE EXPLORE Complicated grief vs. the grief we're taught is acceptableGrieving inside a marriage you haven't leftWatching a partner struggle and the ultimatum that protects your familyThe invisible loss of your children growing upOutgrowing a partner who isn't on the same healing pathRaising emotionally literate sons in a culture that discourages itDeconstructing religious upbringing and what it costsFinding a guide, trusting your body, and reclaiming intuitionTHE POINT Grief isn't reserved for death. It lives inside the marriages we stay in, the children we watch grow, and the beliefs we outgrow, and the only way through any of it is to feel it instead of fix it. ABOUT CHRISSY Chrissy Powers is a licensed therapist and the founder of Paradigm Wellness Collective, a group practice in Southern California. She's trained in psychedelic somatic therapy and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, and has spent over 16 years in practice helping people heal through embodiment, vulnerability, and deep inner work. Her book, Woman Embodied: The Practice of Coming Home to Yourself, releases October 27th. Find her on Instagram @chrissyjpowers and at chrissypowers.com or email her @ chrissypowersmft@gmail.com.  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Paradigm Wellness Collectiveparadigmwellnesscollective.com (find a practitioner)Woman Embodied: The Practice of Coming Home to Yourself (Chrissy's book, out October 27th)Work with AshAre 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 CutsFast-track your results → The Green RoomSolve one thing right now → Studio SessionsBurnout-proof your life && business → MixtapeGet your free podcast playlists → The SoundcheckWeekly emails that tell you what your business coach won't && your therapist can't → Subscribe to The BeatWebsite: ashmcdonaldmentoring.com

  7. Jun 16

    195. The Grief of Aging: Beauty, Ambition & Becoming a New Version of Yourself

    Welcome to the Grief series - a collection of conversations about the grief woven throughout our lives with some extraordinary women bringing their raw, vulnerable stories to the mic. I hope you see yourself somewhere in these stories. … This specific episode is for the women in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and beyond who are entering a new season, physically, emotionally, and mentally. My guest, Bryn Daylor, brought her whole heart to this conversation and bared it all from her grief around physical changes, ambition shifts, and comparison as we age.  TOPICS WE EXPLORE: The identity shift underneath every physical changeGrieving the attention you used to getAesthetic procedures, the pressure, the fear, and the nuanceLosing reckless abandonBuilding ambition from belief instead of survivalStarting a family later and doing the math on timeHow comparison kills your outputWhat shamelessly ambitious looks like when you stop performingTHE POINT: Aging is the grief that lives in the gap between who you were and who you're becoming, and the only way through it is to name it.  ABOUT BRYN: Bryn Daylor helps women unmask themselves through creative expression so they can have the life and love they really want. She works with women to strip back layers of conditioning so that when they go to share themselves, whether through storytelling, writing a book, or putting a creative project into the world, they are doing it from the core of who they actually are. Find her on Instagram @bryndaylor and on her podcast, Seen. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Bryn's podcast: SeenVanquish Vitiligo (product for vitiligo coverage)Work with AshAre 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 CutsFast-track your results → The Green RoomSolve one thing right now → Studio SessionsBurnout-proof your life && business → MixtapeGet your free podcast playlists → The SoundcheckWeekly emails that tell you what your business coach won't && your therapist can't → Subscribe to The BeatWebsite: ashmcdonaldmentoring.com

  8. Jun 9

    194. Ash Unplugged: The Rebrand, My Red Flags & Everything I Hate Right Now

    Welcome to Ash Unplugged, the behind-the-scenes monthly episode where nothing is off the table and the real shit gets said. In this episode we’ll explore the full rebrand reveal, the complete list of things I hate right now, the red flags me and my husband built together, and how I’m actually running our summer successfully. TOPICS WE EXPLORE: The rebrandEverything I hate right nowMy red flags and what l’m doing about themHow I’m structuring my summer to be present, but still successful in my businessThe guest series coming up. THE POINT: The things that make me successful are not just the pretty ones… it’s the walks at 6:30am, the plan that never waits until morning, the self-coaching loop I often use on myself, and the willingness to say exactly what I think, including the things I hate. MENTIONED: Rebrand team: Catie Cupples (copywriter), Christina at Gem Creative (designer), Katie at 26 & Then Some (naming strategist), Dallas (VIP strategy session)Work with meAre 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 CutsFast-track your results → The Green RoomSolve one thing right now → Studio SessionsBurnout-proof your life && business → MixtapeGet your free podcast playlists → The SoundcheckWeekly emails that tell you what your business coach won't && your therapist can't → Subscribe to The BeatWebsite: ashmcdonaldmentoring.com

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About

Shamelessly Ambitious is an honest, grounding, and vulnerable podcast for ambitious, emotionally intelligent women who are done proving themselves, tired of living in constant high-functioning burnout, and craving a life and business that actually feel good. Hosted by Ash McDonald—therapist, nervous-system-first business mentor, and speaker this show blends clinical expertise with lived experience to deliver nervous system tools, embodied strategies, and radical permission so you can expand your capacity, root into emotional steadiness, and build sustainable success that supports your whole life. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, stretched too thin, caught in productivity guilt, or stuck running on stress, this podcast meets you where you are—with therapeutic insights, embodied practices, and heartfelt stories that create real shifts. Whether you’re navigating motherhood, entrepreneurship, or the messy middle of redefining success, each episode helps you slow down, regulate, and return to a felt sense of safety in your body. With over a decade of experience at the intersection of therapy and leadership, Ash pulls back the curtain on what really works—offering grounded guidance you can apply in real life. What you’ll hear: Honest conversations about burnout recovery, nervous system regulation, and redefining successSomatic tools, meditations, and practices that build inner safety and capacityStories of motherhood, mom-life, ambition, and the courage to create a life and business that feel rich and realIf you’re asking the following questions, you’re in the right place: How do I stop tying my worth to productivity?How do I know if I’m experiencing high-functioning burnout and what do I do about it?How do I balance motherhood and leadership without losing myself?How do I calm my body when I feel overwhelmed or overstimulated?This is the podcast for when you’re ready to reclaim peace, expand what you can hold, and create success that doesn’t cost you yourself. Tune in and take the next step toward a regulated, rooted, and deeply fulfilling life.

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