I’m so excited for you to hear this conversation with Amina AlTai. She’s enthusiastic, warm, and wicked smart, and her work around ambition is deeply important. Amina is a holistic career coach and chronic illness advocate who helps leaders lead from their brilliance and truth. Her new book, The Ambition Trap, reframes what ambition means, and how it can be a tool for healing and wholeness instead of burnout and over-functioning.

We discuss the two types of ambition: the kind rooted in purpose and values, and the kind that comes from pain, people-pleasing, and old wounds. Plus, Amina shares her own story about autoimmune diagnoses and near organ failure; and how they shaped the framework she now teaches.  

As Amina says, “Ambition is the desire to grow,”and anything is possible with your ambition when it's coming from that place of purpose and wholeness.

You’ll hear us talk about:

• Ambition rooted in purpose vs. ambition driven by family or societal expectations (aka purposeful ambition vs. painful ambition) (6:13)
• Why overworking is often a systemic and economic issue, plus signs you're caught in the cycle and how to break free (10:25)
• What it means to live above the resentment line and how it applies to your professional life (12:56)
• The three E’s of identifying your zone of genius: excellence, energy, and ease and how they help align your career with your true self (15:25)
• How to shift your perspective around the word ambition, especially if it’s always felt a little uncomfortable (21:39)
• Practical strategies to prevent burnout while still pursuing your goals (24:08)
• The internalized beliefs that equate your worth with your work and how core belief and shadow work can help flip the script (32:53)

Resources:
Rythmia Retreat
Andrea on Instagram @heyandreaowen
My Ketamine Therapy Journey secret podcast series
Amina’s website
Amina’s book, The Ambition Trap: How to Stop Chasing and Start Living
Amina on Instagram @aminaaltai
The Big Leap, Gay Hendricks
Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome, Ruchika Tulshyan and Jodi-Ann Burey, Harvard Business Review

Book recommendations:
I love a good personal development book, and you do too, right? I’ve compiled a list of book recommendations, as mentioned in past episodes. Check out these amazing book recommendations here. Happy reading!  

MSN is supported by:
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Amina AITai (pronounced AH-MIN-UH) is a holistic business and career coach, proud immi-grant and chronic illness advocate. A leading coach to notable leaders, executives and founders—Amina's mastery is connecting us to our brilliance; teaching us to live and lead from it each day.

As a graduate of NYU with a degree in marketing and economics, she started her career with luxury brands and worked for companies such as Cartier, Dolce & Gabbana and Vera Wang before co-founding a marketing agency to work with emerging female entrepreneurs. She then went on to lead marketing for two wellness companies— Spafinder Wellness and Bliss. After spending a decade grappling with a fast-paced career in marketing, Amina looked successful on paper and although high-achieving, she was chronically unhappy.

Overworked, and unknowingly making herself physically sick, Amina received a call from her doctor and was told she was days away from multiple organ failure. In hopes of healing her own life, she sought training in coaching, nutrition, movement and mindfulness and her goal became teaching others how to balance a thriving career, body and mind. She takes a holistic approach to coaching, examining any blocks in the mindset, in our bodies and, in how we lead.

As a half Iraqi, woman of color, she often works with marginalized communities to help them realize possibilities in a way that honors their particular lived experiences. Amina is also com-mitted to helping diverse leaders thrive through her corporate leadership trainings which aims to create cultures where everyone can thrive.

Amina’s debut book, The Ambition Trap: How to Stop Chasing and Start Living (Penguin), will launch on May 13, 2025.

Along with her one-on-one work with forward thinking individuals, Amina has partnered with progressive companies such as Google, Roku, Deloitte, Snap, Outdoor Voices, NYU and HUGE. Amina was a founding coach for Chief (the women’s leadership organization) and also led the coaching division for Inspire Justice (which trains entertainment organizations and ce-lebrities). She's an Entrepreneur Magazine expert-in-residence, a Forbes contributor and was named one of Success Magazine’s Women of Influence. Additionally, she's been featured in goop, Well+Good, The New York Times, Yahoo, NBC, and more.

In addition to Amina’s coaching certifications, she is trained in Shamanic Reiki, as a meditation teacher, in somatic practices, and has a background in nutrition. Amina currently resides in Brooklyn, NY where between client sessions she can be found playing sound bowls, reading cards, and power-lifting.