Mambition

It started with a nail kit in a hotel lobby in Cambodia.Megan Landreth-Smith and Naomi Partridge met a woman called Maya and, instead of offering a handout, helped her build a business. Seeing it work convinced them they made a formidable team. A decade later they are the co-founders of Holos, a kombucha brewery that provides dignified work for people who have been exploited, with 25 percent of shares donated to charity and products on the shelves of Waitrose.They built it alongside six children between them, two couples as co-founders and a faith that held them through the moments when everything felt like it might fall apart.This conversation is about how one specific act can matter more than trying to fix everything.In this episode:→ The Maya story and how a nail kit became the blueprint for Holos→ Why aiming for seasons works better than striving for balance→ Starting before you feel equipped→ Why guilt can be a sign of how much you care→ Keeping a sense of play when the stakes are high→ Faith when things get hardFor the mother who keeps thinking about the thing she wants to start and feels she is not ready. Maya’s story says you do not have to be.

At 27 I blew up my career and went backpacking for three months. It looked like I had not thought it through, but it turned out to be the best career decision I ever made.In this episode I share how that decision bought me the freedom I have as a mother a decade later.In this episode:→ The toxic workplace and the urge to leave it all behind→ How losing my mum at 9 changed my relationship with time, and what that urgency was telling me in my 20s→ Why flexibility is the golden cuff for mothers→ The price I am willing to pay and why it is worth it→ Courage is a muscle, not a personality traitFor the mother who is still piecing together how her past led her here. Some things only make sense looking back. 🎙️ Mambition Moments, powered by cold coffee and running on fumes. Just like you.

Every parent hates the plastic party bag. Every parent still hands them out. Nobody knows who started it and nobody is brave enough to stop! 😂Then Charlotte Curl said it out loud and is now on a mission with No Crap Parties.But wait, this conversation is not about guilt or making us feel bad. It is about giving ourselves permission to celebrate on our own terms, without the pressure to put on a spectacle.It is also about the bigger picture: what we teach our children about celebration beyond material things, why speaking up is worth it even when others feel uncomfortable at first, and the long term impact of what we buy on the planet our children inherit.Christmas is two months away, so talk about perfect timing!In this episode:→ What inspired Charlotte to start the campaign, from a marketing career to a toy swap in Kendal and one too many broken plastic toys→ Showing children that celebration is about more than things→ Where Charlotte’s outspokenness comes from and how she frames boundaries as kindness→ Why saying no to the norm feels so uncomfortable, and why it is worth it→ Simple and small steps we can all take to be more eco friendly→ The long term impact of our choices on the planet our children will inheritFor the parent who is quietly asking what kind of world we are leaving our children, and is ready to do something small about it.

Pre motherhood I ran a complex set of social calculations every single day. I softened my language, adjusted my tone, managed the room and tried to optimise everything.Then parenting happened and something in me stopped performing.In this episode:→ Dancing in a pub when everyone else is sat down, and falling over at the gym, and being able to laugh at myself→ The parts of parenting you cannot optimise→ Lowering your expectations as a way of saving your energy for what matters→ What you get back when you stop people pleasing: funFor the mother who is tired of performing and ready to enjoy the ride, edges and all. 🎙️ Mambition Moments, powered by cold coffee and running on fumes. Just like you.

Bianca lost her mum at 11. She helped raise her three younger sisters. She built her career, ended a 12-year marriage and took her children on a road trip through Europe to mark the beginning of the next chapter.She now runs an agency called Nineteen82 and works with Motherless Mothers which is a charity supporting women through bereavement and estrangement.What strikes me most about Bianca's story is what she chose to take from a difficult childhood and what she chose to leave behind. The early loss. The caretaking. The eldest daughter weight. And then the deliberate, intentional building of a life and a career that gave her the financial freedom to travel with her children, start again on her own terms and never need anyone's permission to do it.In this episode:→ Losing her mother at 11 and what that builds in you — the competence, the caretaking and the eldest daughter trap→ Why likability is a tax on women's ambition and what she is teaching her daughter instead→ Ending a 12-year marriage — and how having the financial means to take her children on a road trip through Europe changed everything→ Financial independence as protection — the strict savings rules she set for her 19-year-old son → Navigating mixed race identity with her children →Why building a career can be a lifelineFor the woman who has carried so much and is finally figuring out what she gets to put down — and what she chooses to keep.

Last Friday I published a post that felt cringey and shameless. I posted it anyway.Over 7,000 impressions, 130 likes and more warm connections than I could count later — I started thinking about what actually happens when you embrace the cringe.Before children I celebrated my self sufficiency. But motherhood is a completely different arena. Interdependence is the infrastructure. The village is everything. And there is so much joy in finding your people.In this episode:→ Why motherhood killed my tolerance for pretending I have it all together→ The shift from solo mindset to village — and why interdependence is the most powerful infrastructure there is→ The call that happened at the right time with the right person→ My 3 year old daughter — the absolute queen of asking — and what she has taught me about shamelessness→ Why people are not thinking about you as much as you think they areFor the mother who is craving connection but has not yet gone first.Go first. Your people are waiting.

She was demoted. She did not know it at the time but that moment would become the launchpad.Alice Ter Haar is the founder of Badass Unicorn, a TEDx speaker, a writer for The Times and someone who has spent years helping people unleash what she calls their Return on Individual — the one of a kind magic that makes each person formidably impressive.In this episode:→ The Badass Unicorn philosophy — what unicorn companies can teach us about finding our gap in the market→ The invisible load — why it is frustrating and why it so often goes unspoken→ Difficult conversations in marriages that lead to better understanding→ Shame dissolves in the light — on vulnerability, authenticity and genuine connectionFor the mother who has been overlooked, underestimated or pushed into a corner.The setback is not the end of the story. Alice is proof of that. And this conversation will remind you why.

Someone I know recently lost her 4 year old son.Loss and grief have a way of cutting through the noise and reminding us of something we already know but sometimes forget.Life is short. Are you deliberate about the one you are designing?This episode is not a sad one. It is an urgent one.I talk about grief as a clarifying force. And I talk about the trip I have been thinking about booking with my children. The moments that take your breath away rather than just the breaths you take. What I am willing to sacrifice to make those moments possible.In this episode:→ The news that prompted this episode and why grief always brings me back to the same place→ What it means to be anchored in the knowledge that life is short — not as anxiety but as clarity→ Removing the noise — how limiting social media has given me my own thoughts back→ The small financial sacrifices that make the bigger experiences possible→ Designing a life around moments rather than things→ Book the trip. Do the thing. Create the moment. Now.For the mother who has been meaning to do the thing.

Some career pivots come with a plan. This one came with a voice Claire did not know she had.Claire Venus is a self described creative who also writes — and she has built a gentle, intentional creative life on Substack after walking away from the exhaustion of running chaotic online projects that left her burned out and questioning everything.This week Alex sits down with Claire for a conversation about creativity, reinvention and what it actually takes to build something that is truly yours.In this episode:→ The career pivot that unearthed a voice she never knew she had→ Burnout, scrambling and the moment she admitted the setup was no longer working→ Why rising costs pushed her toward bigger thinking rather than smaller→ Wanting creative work to be recognised and financially rewarded — and holding that conviction when others doubted her→ The isolation of giving birth during the pandemic → Why the newsletter world right now feels like everyone cheerleading everyone else through figuring it out→ Why waiting to feel ready is not the same as being readyFor the creative who can feel a new voice trying to surface but has not yet given it permission to speak.This one is for you.

I used to be quite a private person. Even when I was struggling. Because I was brought up to conduct yourself well regardless of what is happening on the inside.But I took that too far. And in certain chapters of my life I suffered in silence.Motherhood changed that. The guilt, the mental load, a tough year that brought me to my knees. All of it caused me to rethink what I thought I knew about strength. And to finally see vulnerability for what it actually is.In this episode:→ The performance of perfection and what it actually costs you→ Being raised to be stoic — where that serves you and where it quietly traps you→ Brené Brown on shame, vulnerability and why truth and courage are never weakness→ Why talking to other mothers is therapy→ Why healing requires exposure — and there is no shame in asking for helpFor the mother who has been carrying things alone when she did not have to.Naming it is the beginning.