#104- Female Competition, Maternal Self-Sacrifice, and Building Self-Confidence - Mandy Rees
Sat Feb 07 2026
She spent her entire career seeing other women as competition. Strategic. Logical. Always one step ahead.
Then motherhood hit—and showed her children aren't strategic. They're chaos.
Mandy Rees: commercial real estate lawyer → severe postnatal depression → founder of Mother for Life.
Motherhood realigned her entire career path—from competing in corporate to building spaces where women collaborate instead.
In this episode:
Why we're conditioned to see other women as threats (and how to unlearn it).
How motherhood destroyed her "logical solutions" playbook and forced a complete identity shift.
The self-confidence work that changes everything—when you genuinely like yourself, other women stop feeling like competition.
Why maternal self-sacrifice is killing us (and what to do instead).
When you're comfortable with yourself—when you take up your own space, meet your own needs, do the inner work—you see yourself clearly. Then you see others clearly.
That psychological separation is what creates collaboration instead of competition.
The cycle:
We were conditioned to compete. Taught there's only room for one successful woman.
And when we compete instead of collaborate? We pass that scarcity mindset straight to our daughters.
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She spent her entire career seeing other women as competition. Strategic. Logical. Always one step ahead. Then motherhood hit—and showed her children aren't strategic. They're chaos. Mandy Rees: commercial real estate lawyer → severe postnatal depression → founder of Mother for Life. Motherhood realigned her entire career path—from competing in corporate to building spaces where women collaborate instead. In this episode: Why we're conditioned to see other women as threats (and how to unlearn it). How motherhood destroyed her "logical solutions" playbook and forced a complete identity shift. The self-confidence work that changes everything—when you genuinely like yourself, other women stop feeling like competition. Why maternal self-sacrifice is killing us (and what to do instead). When you're comfortable with yourself—when you take up your own space, meet your own needs, do the inner work—you see yourself clearly. Then you see others clearly. That psychological separation is what creates collaboration instead of competition. The cycle: We were conditioned to compete. Taught there's only room for one successful woman. And when we compete instead of collaborate? We pass that scarcity mindset straight to our daughters.