Pre-mum me wore heels a lot because I tied a significant part of how I felt about myself to how dressed up I was.

Motherhood changed that. First out of necessity then out of choice.

Jumpsuits, trainers, and somewhere across 3 to 5 years of motherhood the casual dressing stopped feeling like a compromise and started feeling like exactly enough.

But there is more to it than just the clothes.

In this episode:
→ The jumpsuit era — optimising to get out of the house with two small children and how that accidentally started everything
→ Why living in a social media vacuum has been one of the most quietly powerful things for my confidence
→ What happens when you stop comparing and start actually liking yourself
→ Why confidence that is not dependent on what you are wearing is a different kind of confidence entirely
→ What I want my daughter to observe — it is good to look your best, but do not lose yourself in the process

It started out of necessity and somewhere in between I found a version of confidence I did not know I was missing.

Not every lesson that shapes you as a mother happens after you become one.

This episode is my top six experiences from before motherhood that I now recognise as the foundations of the mother I am today.

→ Solo travel
→ Quitting my job and navigating a career pivot
→ Solitude
→ Losing my mum at 9
→ Frugality with money

→ Heartbreak

Motherhood blows everything wide open. The rules change. The priorities shift. And suddenly you are back to basics in a way you never expected.

But you are not starting from scratch. You are anchored by everything you quietly lived before they arrived.

That is why these six experiences matter to me.

My daughter asked to go inside a woman's house I had just finished a professional shoot at. My immediate instinct was absolutely not. That is odd and a bit much.

She got really upset. And knowing my daughter, really upset has only one destination. So I knocked on the door and asked. The woman said yes.

My daughter asked without knowing that asking can be scary. No history of rejection. No internal calculation of whether it was reasonable. Just the ask.

I have that history. And I am asking anyway.

In this episode:
→ Why children ask without fear — and what we lose when we stop doing the same
→ The difference between asking without evidence and asking despite it
→ Jia Jiang's rejection theory and what deliberately seeking no teaches you about the ask
→ What my children's unlimited asking has done to my own inhibitions

For the woman who has talked herself out of the ask before she has even opened her mouth.

This one might change that. 💛

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.