A request for a Nigerian volunteer in my son's reception class. I put my hand up immediately.

But that "yes" was years in the making — built on flexible work, grandparents already looking after my daughter that exact same morning, and a version of me I have been slowly becoming since long before this moment.

In this episode:
→ What actually had to be true behind the scenes for that yes to even be possible
→ Why nobody sees the infrastructure behind a yes, only the yes itself
→ How becoming bolder and more willing to put myself forward shaped that moment
→ A rare glimpse into my son's carefree nature

For the woman who has built herself, quietly, into someone who says yes.

Two friends, £500 each and a market stall.

A decade later, that market stall is a six figure business.

Lisa Shepherd and Saskia Roskam co-founded The Biskery — a personalised biscuit business built on something genuinely refreshing to hear. A clear set of values that meant refusing to chase growth that would cost them their families.

Saskia went from studying languages and working in digital marketing in Germany to baking her grandmother's recipes from a kitchen in Leeds. Lisa came back from maternity leave and had her senior title quietly taken away. Both of them built something neither corporate world was ever going to offer them.

In this episode:
→ The £500 each, the market stall, and the slow, unglamorous early years
→ The grandmother's recipe at the heart of it all — a quiet legacy from a stay-at-home grandmother who shaped how Saskia grew up eating, and how that connected her and Lisa from the very beginning
→ The co-founder "permission slip" — what it actually takes to build trust and synergy with someone, and giving each other permission to be human first
→ Why they chose slow, steady growth over chasing scale

For the mother who started in one career and is wondering whether her past actually has a place in where she is headed next.

For Lisa and Saskia, it did. There were threads running through their whole story all along — they just had to follow them.

I am not the fun parent. I am the one who checks the stair gate twice and has read the entire homework folder before dinner.

Their dad is not like this. Bedtime when he has them involves a game called Goon, which is essentially him chasing them round the house at full volume while nobody winds down for sleep.

I used to think that made me the careful parent and him the less careful one. Now I think it makes us exactly what they need.

In this episode:
→ Why one parent worrying about safety and one parent encouraging risk might be the healthiest combination a child can have
→ Why consistency matters more than fun, and fun matters more than we admit
→ A Father's Day reflection for the fun ones, the reckless ones, and everyone raising children in their own particular way

For every parent who has ever thought they were doing it wrong because they were doing it differently.

The Sunday scaries. The dread that starts at 4pm. The countdown to Monday.

Mel Goodman knows them too. She spent fifteen years in high pressure leadership making decisions in her sleep. Then she had children — and the woman who used to handle everything effortlessly suddenly found those same things keeping her up at night.

We talk about the very specific hell of returning to work after kids, postpartum anxiety, and white knuckling decisions that used to feel automatic.

In this episode:
→ Why competent women suddenly stop trusting their own judgment after children
→ The question Mel asks every client — if things are still like this in a year, how would you feel?
→ Why women deprioritise themselves so reflexively it stops feeling like a choice
→ What happens when you finally decide to stop putting yourself last

It is never too late to start living life on your own terms.

Nobody wrote the poem for the ambitious mother.

The one who had the dreams and then had the baby and then stood in the mirror wondering what happened to the person she used to be.

So I wrote it myself.

Oh, Someone's Mum is a poem for the mother who loves fiercely and still has something in her that will not be quiet. Who is building something in the margins. Who refuses to choose between her children and herself.

It covers everything — the identity shift, the browser tabs, the 5am hustle that stole the rest of the day, the village that holds it all together, the urgency that loss gives you, and the quiet radical truth that this season is not something to endure.

It is something to build in.

For the mother who is still figuring out who she is becoming.

Oh — what that someone does not yet know about you.

You can read every book about boundaries. You can know exactly what you should say. And still find yourself saying yes when you meant no — again.

That is not a willpower problem. That is a belief system problem.

Meshali Chotai spent fifteen years as a Big 4 Actuarial Director watching high achieving women — herself included — run on empty while looking completely put together.

Now she coaches those same women on the inner work that actually makes change stick.

In this episode:→ Why boundaries fail without the inner work underneath them→ The iceberg — what is visible on the surface and what is actually driving everything beneath it→ Why high achieving women are the most likely to push through until something breaks→ How doing this work changes your relationships — counterintuitively for the better→ What protecting your energy actually makes possible for ambitious mothers

For the woman who looks like she has it all together.

And is quietly running on empty.

The past nine months have been the hardest of my life. My children had no idea what I was carrying. And yet somehow they were part of how I got through it.

We spend so much energy trying to protect our children from the hard things. But in doing so we sometimes miss what they have to offer us in those same seasons.

That is what this episode is about.

In this episode:→ Why children's empathy is pure even when their understanding is limited→ Teaching your children that big feelings are allowed starts with believing it yourself→ Why being needed by small people pulls you out of yourself on the days you have nothing left→ Why joy is always available even in the hardest seasons

For the parent who is in the middle of something hard right now.

Pay attention to your children. They might just have more for you in this season than you expect.

When your motherhood journey starts with a sweep, caring what people think stops being an option. 😂

Something about caring for a tiny human, the early days, the lack of sleep, the urgency of time — it quietly strips away everything that was never really yours to carry.

The status games. The performing. The exhausting social choreography of trying to be liked, to fit in, to be seen in the right way.

And what is left is so much more powerful than the performance ever was.

In this episode:→ The status games we play before children — and what they actually cost us→ Why motherhood rewires your brain to stop seeking approval→ Why leaning into this shift is where the real confidence lives→ How caring less about what people think helps you get ruthlessly clear about what you actually want to build

For the mother who is starting to realise that the glow she has is not despite motherhood.

It is because of it.