Explore every episode of the podcast Her Ascent

Emma started out in hospitality, moved through facilities management and construction, ran worker welfare for one of the biggest events on the planet, and now works in compliance and reputational risk, picking up an entirely new skill set every time she jumped.

In this episode, Danielle and Lauren talk to Emma about where her confidence actually came from, and what happens when that confidence lands you in trouble. She's honest about speaking her mind to someone several levels above her, the letter she eventually wrote to resign and the reply that came back: brutal, and in her own words, an absolute class act.

It's a conversation about the gap between confidence and authority, why being right doesn't always mean being safe, and the very deliberate habits, boundaries, reflection, knowing when to walk away from a conversation, that let her keep going anyway.

Topics covered:

• A career built on saying yes to whatever came next, not on a five-year plan
• Growing up with a mother who modelled confidence long before Emma needed her own
• Calling out bad behaviour early in her career, and where that instinct came from
• Speaking her mind to someone far more senior, and what it actually cost her
• The resignation letter she eventually wrote, and the reply that came back
• Recognising when you can't have a conversation yet, and choosing to walk away instead
• The internal audit accusation that knocked her confidence, even though she'd done nothing wrong
• The moment she knew she'd made it: choosing the office next to the CEO's, and watching a coat rack appear the second she asked for one
• Why visibility and asking questions build more credibility than talking about yourself ever will
• What leadership has changed in her, for the good and the bad

"You always have to embrace the opportunity you're given."

If you've ever said the right thing at the wrong moment and spent years living with it, this one's for you.

Debs didn't plan her career. She followed her curiosity through the dot-com boom, into fintech, telco, travel and banking, building what she calls a properly "squiggly" path, and ended up leading a global technology team without ever quite noticing the moment it happened.

In this episode, Debs talks with Lauren and Danielle about what actually changes when you step into senior leadership, and how little of it matches what you'd expect. She talks about the year it took her to stop trying to fix the code herself, why she had to give up planning for every eventuality once the pace outran it, and the moment an HR director warned an exec to "watch out for her, she's ambitious" like it was a bad thing.

It's a conversation about letting go of being the best doer in the room, learning to trust your own judgement when there's no time to prepare for everything, and working out who you become once people start turning to you for the answers.

Topics covered:

• Following passion over a plan, and building a genuinely squiggly career
• The moment leadership finds you, and why there's no finish line to cross
• Letting go of being the doer, and the sporting analogy that reframes it completely
• Why overpreparing stopped working once the pace outran it
• Managing up, and what changes when your senior leadership actually has your back
• Growing into confidence as a naturally shy, reserved person
• The HR director who called her ambition a warning sign, and what that taught her
• Finding her people through a non-exec board role, and why an outside network matters
• Becoming a parent, and learning to be kinder to herself
• What changed in her that nobody warned her about

"I've always been quite ambitious, not for power or fame, just to do cool stuff."

If you've ever had your ambition handed back to you as something to watch out for, this one's for you.

Meet your hosts. In this first episode, Lauren and Danielle sit down behind the mic to introduce themselves, share their stories, and explain why they started Her Ascent.

Although they come from very different backgrounds, neither of them planned a career in risk management. They talk about the unexpected turns that led them there, the people who backed them along the way, and the lessons they've learned through the highs, the setbacks and everything in between.

This episode is honest, unfiltered and, at times, a little chaotic — which is exactly what Her Ascent is all about. No polished career stories or pretending to have all the answers. Just real conversations about work, ambition, confidence and figuring things out as you go.

Whether you're just starting out, stepping into leadership, or wondering what comes next, we hope you'll find something here that resonates.

In this episode:

Lauren's journey from Wythenshawe to Associate Director

Danielle's path from boarding school to Saudi Arabia

How the two met on a National Highways project — and never stopped talking

Why they created Her Ascent, and what's coming in Season 1.

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