Nobody tells you that motherhood will make you more yourself. Not less.

More confident. More direct. Less embarrassed. Less interested in wasting time on things that don't matter. More willing to lie down on a stranger's picnic blanket — metaphorically speaking. My 3 year old does it literally.

This episode is about the growth that sneaks up on you. The version of yourself that motherhood quietly builds while you're busy building your family.

In this episode:→ Why I now have strong opinions about a good thermos flask→ The gym replacing going out — and why that brings me the same amount of joy→ Dropping the filter when it comes to people — and what my 3 year old taught me about that→ Why I genuinely believe nothing good is happening after 9pm and I am completely at peace with that→ How motherhood rewired my self awareness, my spending, my confidence and my relationship with time

For the mother who thought she was losing herself — and found out she was just getting started.

Rashi Kakkar started Decks and Diapers when she first became a mother.

Not because she had time. She didn't.

Because something in her needed to make sense of what was happening. The identity shift. The career tension. The feeling that motherhood and ambition were supposed to be opposites and yet somehow she couldn't accept that.

She is a global leader at McKinsey & Company, a mum of two including a newborn, and knows what it takes to keep building when life is already full.

In this episode:→ Why she felt compelled to create something of her own alongside a demanding career — and what it gave her that nothing else could→ The hard seasons behind the newsletter — and what kept her going→ What 100+ conversations with working parents revealed that nobody wants to say out loud→ What dual ambition actually looks like from the inside — the full picture, not just the highlight reel

For the mother who knows that creating something of her own isn't indulgent.

It's necessary.

All views expressed are Rashi's personal opinions and do not reflect the views of any organisation she may be a part of.

My period leaked in a store. And honestly? It made me think.

Because the version of me from 5 or 6 years ago would have been mortified. This version found it more inconvenient than anything else. And the fact that I'm talking about it on a podcast says everything.

In this episode:→ What that moment revealed about how far I've come - and how little I saw it coming→ Childbirth as the first barrier -how giving birth stripped away my body consciousness in a way nothing else could→ From hiding in toilet cubicles to changing rooms, naked swims and podcast microphones - the quiet journey to feeling at home in my own body→ How body confidence became life confidence - and why I'm taking more risks now than I ever did before

For the mother who didn't realise motherhood was building her confidence until she was already standing in it. 💛

She worked while she was in labour. Not because she wanted to. Because no plan existed.

And in that moment -- somewhere between contractions and conference calls - Alexa Starks decided she was done helping women survive a broken system. It was time to fix it.

So she did something most of us only dream about. She packed up her family, left America, and moved to the Netherlands - for schools that trust children to be children, healthcare that trusts the body to heal, and streets where her children could simply belong.

And then she got to work.

In this episode:→ Working while in labour - the moment everything changed→ Leaving America - what the decision really cost and what it gave her family→ Executive Moms and Mothered Magazine - why she stopped coaching women to cope and started fixing the system→ The Maternal Strengths Report - 97% of mothers feel they became better leaders. Only 20% had a return to work plan.→ National Working Motherhood Week - one million working mothers, free practical support, this September

This one is for the mother who has ever quietly survived something that should never have been her problem to solve alone.

And for anyone who has looked at the life they built and found the courage to build a better one.

My 5 year old son threw something and broke it.

He apologised. And a few days later I almost brought it up again but stopped myself.

Because his apology was meant to close the matter. And dragging it back out wouldn't have been self protection. It would have been punishment.

That moment changed how I think about forgiveness entirely.

In this episode:→ The incident: what happened, what I almost did, and what stopped me→ What motherhood teaches us about forgiveness - how raising children turns it from a grand gesture into a quiet daily choice→ The wider application: friendships, relationships, and ourselves - the difference between forgetting and forgiving, between keeping score and choosing the relationship→ Modelling forgiveness: my son is sensitive and hard on himself - what I show him now about letting things go becomes the voice in his head when he makes his own mistakes

For the mother who wants to love better, hold things more loosely - and raise children who know how to forgive themselves too.

She was told art wouldn't pay. So she did the sensible thing.

Years working in a law firm - capable, competent, but never quite in her own vision. She was good at it. And something was always slightly off.

It took a power cut, a redundancy, and a breastfeeding epiphany to crack things open. And she found her way back.

Leanne Pearce is a portrait artist, twice shortlisted for Portrait Artist of the Year, and the woman who walks into the moments most of us look away from - the ICU, the hospice, the families mid-grief.

She calls it care work. After this conversation, you'll understand exactly why.

In this episode:→ The creative identity she was talked out of - and how she reclaimed it→ What it actually costs to sit with grieving families and turn that into art→ The empathy that is both her greatest gift and her greatest challenge→ How she built her most important work in the margins of motherhood

For the woman who was told to be practical - and never quite stopped hearing the pull of something more.

Raising children is expensive. Nobody is pretending otherwise.

But motherhood will also expose everything about how you use money - the stories you tell yourself, the happiness you think you can buy, the things you spend on without ever asking why.

In this episode:

• The myth: My daughter played with homemade playdough for four hours at nursery. At Christmas, the presents lasted 30 minutes. The box they came in lasted longer than the toys.
• How we see money: Are we spending for them — or for us? And where do we draw the line between giving our children everything and teaching them that everything needs to be given?
• What money is actually for: Freedom. Experiences. The people and passions that truly matter.

For the mother who already knows money isn't the villain.

Unconscious spending is.

Maternity redundancy isn't just an HR issue. It's a confidence heist.

Caroline didn't just lose a job. She lost her professional identity, her routine, the quiet confidence that comes from knowing you're good at something and being seen for it.

According to Pregnant Then Screwed, up to 74,000 women in the UK are forced out of work every year while pregnant or on maternity leave. The process is often technically legal. And almost always dehumanising.

Caroline's was no different. A calendar invite. A glass-walled room. Colleagues watching. No privacy. No dignity.

She went on to found Upsource, a multi-award winning VA agency, host her own podcast for mothers in business, and become a Goldman Sachs 10K alumna. She built all of it after the glass-walled room.

In this episode we talk about what that day actually felt like, why outsourcing is really about seeing time differently when you have children, why financial independence is non-negotiable for women, and what it genuinely looks like to build a business alongside motherhood — the real version, not the highlight reel.

This isn't about resilience as a buzzword.

It's about building a life that couldn't be taken from you in a glass-walled room - one your children grow up watching you choose every single day.