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Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood, & Life
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 success
- Somatic tools, meditations, and practices that build inner safety and capacity
- Stories of motherhood, mom-life, ambition, and the courage to create a life and business that feel rich and real
If 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.
Shamelessly Ambitious I Helping Ambitious Women Prevent Burnout + Create Nervous System First Success in Business, Motherhood, & Life
141. A Time I Didn't Belong
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Drum roll pleasseee 🥁 The updated membership is here and it is simply amazing. The Above The Standard Collective. ✨🥹🖤 Although I can't give away too much, I can tease that the membership was largely impacted by the idea of healing & belonging.
Inside the membership are monthly healing intensives and within these intensives are prompts followed by my teachings of why that matters. The most recent prompt was about a time you didn't belong... Now, I never ask others to be vulnerable without myself being vulnerable first. && that's exactly what this episode is about. This is a very personal & vulnerable story of the earliest memory I have of a time I didn't belong.
THE JUICY HIGHLIGHTS:
• The new name & vibe of my amazing membership (&& exclusive insight on when the doors are opening)
• What my ayahuasca experience taught me about healing
• The earliest & very momentous memory of a time I didn't belong
• How my vitiligo has made me feel both belonging & unbelonging
• The difference of belonging versus fitting in
THE EPISODE BREAKDOWN:
[0:45] A BTS of something super special I've been working on 🤫
[1:52] Monthly healing intensives within the new membership
[2:23] Ayahuasca taught me that we can heal instantaneously
[3:25] What is Her Story? What does "going first" mean to me?
[4:00] Why I want to share my personal story for the sake of instantaneous healing
[4:12] My entire life there have been so many circumstances where I didn't belong
[4:52] Why is the feeling of belonging necessary?
[5:34] Taking it way back to my earliest memory of unbelonging
[5:49] Some context on my core family dynamic
[7:17] What was mounted on my family's new house that wrecked me... 😣
[9:12] Sharing a story of a time I *did* belong
[9:38] Opening up more about my vitiligo
[10:28] When she told me... "I'm not surprised you have vitiligo" 🥹🫠
[11:49] The opposite of belonging is fitting in & why it's important to not fit in
[12:58] Challenging questions to ask yourself around belonging
[13:13] The butterfly effect 🦋 && sharing mine with meeting my husband
[14:58] What happens when we share our stories, connect with others & find true belonging
[15:43] My favorite part of the membership: No take backs ❌
[17:15] My deep desire to intentionally live above the standard
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