Mother in the C-Suite

Working motherhood, entrepreneurship and burnout recovery.Building a business before becoming a parent is one thing. Learning how to keep building once motherhood changes everything is something else entirely. In this conversation, we explore how becoming a mum forced a complete rethink of ambition, productivity and what success actually looks like.From starting a business at 18 to launching multiple ventures, today’s guest shares the realities of entrepreneurship, ADHD, identity shifts, people-pleasing, hustle culture and the pressure women face to succeed everywhere at once. This episode is for founders, senior leaders and working mothers trying to build meaningful careers without sacrificing themselves in the process.

Most founders believe relentless hustle is the only path to success. But working yourself to the bone has a hidden cost that few are willing to admit.Lauren Lovett chased wealth across multiple industries before a severe health scare forced her to rethink everything. She reveals why adopting a purpose-driven mindset attracts more financial success than pure grind. The conversation explores the hidden dangers of extreme stress , the balance between masculine and feminine energy in business and the bold decision to build a thriving community retail brand. We also hear why walking away from a toxic situation is the ultimate winning strategy.Lauren Lovett is the founder of Ink and Ember. She is an entrepreneur who transformed her approach to business to prioritise community and personal well-being.

Becoming a parent at 19 changes the trajectory of a career before it even begins. This episode explores the raw reality of moving from childhood straight into motherhood while trying to navigate male dominated industries and corporate structures that were never built for parents. It highlights the systemic failures that often force ambitious women to abandon secure roles to find the flexibility they need.The conversation covers the intense pressure of training as a stockbroker in London and America where fitting in meant attending strip clubs to avoid being left behind. We discuss the blatant discrimination faced after pregnancy loss and the eventual move into entrepreneurship following a spiteful dismissal. These experiences reveal why many women feel they must take their future into their own hands to survive the corporate world.Michelle Wilson-Stimson is an entrepreneur and the founder of Yoke Global, a successful financial services operations business. After decades of mothering and building a company from the ground up, she shares her honest journey through empty nest syndrome and the ongoing process of self discovery.

Many working parents struggle with the daily juggle of children and careers. One terrifying medical emergency completely changed how this director approached her life, work and leadership. We explore the raw reality of suffering from severe pre-eclampsia and experiencing full body organ failure at 30 weeks pregnant. We discuss the transition from financial planner to operations director. The conversation reveals why motherhood naturally sharpens your decision-making skills and forces you to cut the nonsense in the boardroom. We also cover the importance of building a company culture rooted in kindness, fairness and autonomy. You will hear practical advice on avoiding leadership burnout through simple daily habits like a mandatory lunchtime walk.Olivia is the Operations Director at TFP Financial Planning. She shares her deeply personal journey of career progression, surviving a traumatic premature birth and finding true integration between her business and her family.

Authentic confidence, imposter syndrome and the inner critic in working mothers and female leaders.Confidence therapist Gemma Holmes shares why “fake it till you make it” is not only exhausting, but unsustainable - and what to build instead. Drawing on her experience in corporate leadership and therapy, she explains how imposter syndrome shows up in high-achieving women, why it keeps you stuck and how to shift from self-doubt to genuine self-trust.This conversation is for senior women balancing leadership and motherhood who feel the pressure to perform while quietly questioning themselves. You’ll learn how to understand your inner critic, stop spiralling after difficult moments, and build a version of confidence that actually feels like you - calm, grounded and sustainable. 

Financial independence, motherhood and resilience after financial loss.Sacked after maternity leave. Two weeks before giving birth, scammed over £200,000. No safety net, no time to pause just the reality of starting again while responsible for three children. Katie’s story is a stark reminder of how quickly security can disappear, and what it really demands of you when it does.Long nights, impossible decisions and the weight of knowing there is no one else coming to fix it. Katy shares how she rebuilt from that moment not just financially, but mentally and why those experiences reshaped how she works, parents and makes decisions today.This episode is for working mothers, founders and women carrying both financial and emotional responsibility. You’ll hear how to protect yourself before things go wrong, how to think differently about money and risk, and why independence is the foundation everything else sits on. Katy’s message is clear: sort your finances early, understand what you have, and never assume someone else will safeguard your future.

Building a business in the margins of motherhood, work and everything in between.Suziey’s story is not one of neatly balanced routines or perfectly timed ambition. It’s one of fragmented days, a constantly full mind and the quiet determination to keep going anyway. While caring for a baby, returning to an employed job and navigating life as both a mum and a step mum, she is building Mum Bloom - often in the small, messy pockets of time most people overlook.What emerges in this conversation is not a polished founder story, but a deeply real one. The constant switching between roles. The mental clutter that never quite clears. The pressure of knowing something matters, while not yet knowing how to make it work. And the steep learning curve of building a business from scratch; picking up new skills quickly, testing, adjusting and continuing without certainty.For any mother, whether you’re leading a business, working a job, raising children and simply trying to hold it all together, this episode offers a grounded, honest reflection of modern motherhood.

Working motherhood, ambition and boundaries — the reality of the choices we make.Michelle Hoskin built a successful career transforming businesses and speaking on stages around the world. But behind the success sits a question many working mothers quietly carry: what does ambition cost at home?In this honest and deeply human conversation, Michelle reflects on the choices she made while raising her daughter Ruby — from the early years of parenting and co-parenting while building a business, to the new challenges of raising a teenager. She shares the emotional reality of balancing work and family, navigating menopause at the same time, and learning that there is no such thing as perfect balance — only conscious choices and the courage to live with them.Michelle also opens up about the mindset that carried her through the hardest moments: a relentless belief in herself, clear boundaries around what matters most, and the self-awareness to recognise when life is asking you to slow down.For women balancing work, family and the invisible mental load of holding everything together, this episode is a powerful reminder that motherhood and ambition don’t have to compete — but they will always require trade-offs.

Early in her career, someone told Anna she was “underwhelming, underqualified and really f*cking annoying.” Not exactly the kind of feedback that builds confidence. And yet she went on to build a career leading people and building high performing teams anyway.This conversation explores what values-led leadership really looks like in practice - including creating psychological safety, setting boundaries as a leader, rebuilding culture after toxic experiences, and learning how to lead authentically without “playing the game”. Anna also speaks openly about being a step mum. How step dads are often celebrated as heroes while step mums are cast as wicked witches. How workplaces and sometimes other parents don’t always see step parents as real parents.And one of my favourite things she said:Her step daughter taught her that you can grow a child in your heart as well as your belly ❤️ It’s a conversation about leadership, identity, and the messy reality of family.

Limiting beliefs, leadership confidence and rewiring your inner narrative.Hayley Mitchell, founder of Human Edge Development, shares how subconscious beliefs shape our careers, our relationships and the way we show up as both leaders and mothers. From a 20-year corporate career in HR and Learning & Development to becoming what she calls a 'spiritual CEO', Hayley explains why mindset work alone is not enough and how deeper belief work can unlock confidence, clarity and resilience.We talk redundancy, heartbreak, 'hot girl eras', being told she had just a 10% chance of conceiving, and the unexpected plot twist to becoming a mother at 41. Along the way, there’s laughter, straight talking and the mantra that now anchors her life: the universe acts in your favour.For working mothers and female leaders navigating identity shifts, imposter syndrome or career pivots, this conversation offers a grounded and refreshingly honest perspective on inner work, self-worth and leading without fear.

IVF, fertility grief and breaking the silence.This is a deeply personal conversation about longing, loss and identity. Ana shares her experience of years of fertility treatment, the injections, the waiting, the hope, the heartbreak and the silence she carried at home and at work. She speaks honestly about the loneliness of IVF, the hormonal and emotional toll and the invisible grief that so many women endure behind closed doors.For women navigating their own desire for motherhood, this episode offers understanding and reassurance. It raises awareness of what fertility journeys really involve, why workplaces must create space for compassion and how women can support one another. Most importantly, it is a reminder that your worth is never defined by your ability to have children, and that you do not have to be alone in this.

Behind every promotion is positioning. Behind every setback is a decision. Behind every working mother is a set of trade-offs no one sees.Linh Slater, Head of Research at NatWest, shares how visibility at Jaguar Land Rover led to her sponsorship, how redundancy at Dyson reshaped her trajectory and why she believes the biggest barrier to promotion is often time served inside one organisation. She also speaks honestly about hiding her motherhood early in her career and how, after finding her tribe, she felt empowered to be fully authentic, embracing motherhood as part of her leadership identity rather than something to minimise.In this conversation, you’ll hear practical insight on earning promotions, navigating succession planning, delivering impact through others and building a career that aligns with the life you actually want in 20 years’ time. For experienced leaders and aspiring executives, this is a thoughtful discussion about ambition, resilienceLinks:Prep for interviews:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Winning-At-Interview-New-Succeed/dp/1461168473Listening to your body:https://www.amazon.co.uk/When-Body-Says-No-Hidden/dp/178504222X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3TX1FVC2TNUR9&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.12Hr5la9mAL6RMW3HxYv3g6HwLpopF_qHtQHEZu753ReV6MvaX8iSopsO699eziOxzZE0A9R4b-PRdT5fxNgwv0PUUrf46oncyA_8cnkO7j0W1yAa0wkDrYngEPJWrduT8OuCIlJ7GfVXBZjOhhwPdKNATSvupkARmpFVIh7-VDivlYfqQrn1C9MAEVArASOmr1Q3p9kJr7qlvKLjhW_drd4LHg1d7AIYLxPC9vqg3Y.6LRPMQdOUF1flF7paWlNCDXrLvRdrEM1qt1OWMjiAcs&dib_tag=se&keywords=when+the+body+says+no&qid=1771001046&s=books&sprefix=when+the+body+says+no%2Cstripbooks%2C119&sr=1-1Intro to Stoic Philosophy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Daily-Stoic-Meditations-Perseverance-translations/dp/1781257655

In this conversation, Astrid shares her journey from creative leadership roles and entrepreneurship to hitting burnout during a period marked by motherhood, redundancy, family illness and the pressure to hold everything together. She reflects on the motherhood penalty, losing work while pregnant, redefining ambition and why redundancy ultimately became her turning point rather than her downfall.Astrid reflects on what it actually takes to come back from burnout, prioritising herself for the first time in years. This episode is for senior women, founders and working mothers who feel depleted but still driven. It offers permission to prioritise your own wellbeing, rethink outdated ideas of success and recognise that taking care of yourself is what makes sustainable leadership possible.

Michelle became a mother in an era where stepping away meant being left behind.In this episode, she reflects on moving country, becoming a mother and returning to work early driven by the fear of being quietly held back. She speaks openly about why work felt like the easier place to be and how she continues to carry the guilt of not always being there.Now parenting teenagers, she reveals how the juggle hasn’t disappeared, it has simply evolved. The demands are less visible but no less heavy.For working mothers and leaders at any stage, this conversation offers perspective, compassion and a powerful reminder: there is no perfect time, no clean balance, only seasons, trade offs, and the ongoing work of forgiving yourself.

Redefining success, ambition and identity after motherhood and burnout.Ruth, founder of insight agency Pinch, shares what it really felt like to reach global board level while raising young children and why having it all eventually became unsustainable. From post maternity pressure and workplace guilt to anxiety, identity loss and the invisible mental load, this conversation goes beyond surface level leadership stories.This episode is for senior working mothers, founders and female leaders who have achieved the titles but are questioning the cost. You’ll hear an honest reframe of ambition, the power of reclaiming agency, and why presence, flexibility and self-trust now matter more than status or external markers of success.

Flexible working, redundancy after maternity leave and the reality many ambitious mothers face when returning to work.In this conversation, the founder of Mother of All Jobs, Evie Squires, shares her journey from a career in recruitment and financial services to being made redundant on her first day back from maternity leave, while pregnant again. She explains how that experience became the catalyst for creating Mother of All Jobs, and why so many capable, ambitious mothers struggle to find roles that genuinely fit family life. Evie now works with employers to introduce flexible working properly, while supporting parents to find roles that truly work for them.This episode is for senior working mothers, leaders and employers who want to understand the real cost of inflexible systems, the resilience motherhood builds, and why trusting parents with autonomy doesn’t reduce performance - it strengthens it.

Building a service-based business while raising young children requires constant adjustment often without clear rules.In this episode, chartered financial planner and founder Olivia Shipstone shares her journey of starting her firm at 24, navigating pregnancy through covid, working through maternity by choice, and building a family business with her husband.She speaks honestly about flexibility at work, parenting roles, the mental load of being the default parent, and the resentment that can quietly build alongside it.This conversation is for women who love their work, love their children, and are holding both at the same time.

Senior leadership doesn’t pause when you become a mother — but your definition of success often shifts.In this episode, our guest, Mandy Rawlinson, reflects on navigating a high-profile career alongside motherhood, from managing travel and boardroom expectations to being honest with her employer about emotional pressure and family transitions. She shares how mentorship, supportive partnerships and using her voice helped her stay ambitious without pretending motherhood hadn’t changed her.This conversation is for senior working mothers, executives and leaders questioning outdated workplace assumptions — and for women who want to progress, speak up and redefine success on their own terms.

Welcome to Mother in the C-Suite - the podcast where ambition, leadership, and motherhood collide.Hosted by Michelle Wilson-Stimson & Shaunagh Wilson, a mother-and-daughter CEO/COO duo on a mission to help women reach their potential.This is for mums and aspiring mums who want more — and sometimes feel stretched by it all.Through honest, real conversations, we explore the realities of motherhood alongside leadership, growth, boundaries, and balance.If you’re a founder, business owner, senior leader, or rising talent, this space is for you.We’re redefining success with humanity, ambition, and honesty at the centre.