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Make Some Noise with Andrea Owen

Episode 680: The Truth About Ambition, Burnout, and Your Zone of Genius with Amina AlTai

Make Some Noise with Andrea Owen

Andrea Owen

Education, How To, Self-improvement

4.8516 Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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 @heyandreaowenMy Ketamine Therapy Journey secret podcast seriesAmina’s websiteAmina’s book, The Ambition Trap: How to Stop Chasing and Start Living Amina on Instagram @aminaaltaiThe 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:We love the sponsors that make our show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: andreaowen.com/sponsors/ Episode link: https://andreaowen.com/680 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:30.3

Ambition is neutral, natural. It's for all of us and it's ours for the taking. So many about

0:35.2

women, people of color, people with disabilities, queer community,

0:38.4

we experience an ambition penalty, right? We're often told that our ambition isn't polite and it's

0:43.7

aggressive or whatever it is, right? And so I just want to invite you to come back to the conversation

0:48.8

to make it neutral and natural for you and find your way in it. And if it doesn't look like

0:53.7

what we've seen in the world, brava, because like it. And if it doesn't look like what we've seen in the

0:54.4

world, brava, because like it needs to look different because so much of what we've seen

0:58.4

is dysfunctional. But I really hope that you will find your way in it and that you do feel like

1:03.2

anything is possible with your ambition when it's coming from that place of purpose and wholeness.

1:09.4

You're listening to Make Some Noise Podcast episode number 680 with guest Amina Altai.

1:18.3

Welcome to Make Some Noise podcast, your guide for strategies, tools, and insight to empower yourself.

1:30.0

I'm your host, Andrea Owen, global speaker, entrepreneur life coach since 2007,

1:35.3

an author of three books that have been translated into 18 languages and are available in 22

1:40.8

countries. Each week, I'll bring you a guest or a lesson that will help you maximize

1:46.1

unshakable confidence, master resilience, and make some noise in your life. You ready? Let's go.

1:55.9

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the podcast. I am so glad that you're here.

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