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  • 123. "So I Made One": Betsy Cornwell on Single Parenthood, Writing & the Old Knitting Factory

    123. "So I Made One": Betsy Cornwell on Single Parenthood, Writing & the Old Knitting Factory
    2026/05/29
    Betsy Cornwell saw a gap — artist residencies she qualified for but couldn’t access as a single parent — and instead of waiting for someone else to fill it, she built something herself. She crowdfunded the purchase of a historic 1906 knitting factory on the west coast of Ireland, turned it into a residency and retreat space for other single parent artists, and then wrote a memoir about how all of it happened.In this conversation, Ashley and Betsy talk about coming out of an abusive marriage, what it means to write honestly about hard things as a mother, the gap between the writing life you imagine and the one you actually have, and why the accomplishment Betsy is most proud of isn’t her New York Times bestseller or her university teaching post — it’s being a single mom.In This EpisodeHow Betsy became a single parent and why she found herself proud to be one almost immediatelyThe gap she identified — artist residencies she qualified for but couldn’t access because of caretaking logistics and financesThe castle that didn’t work out, the pivot to the knitting factory, and why this place ended up being a better fitWhat crowdfunding a house actually looked like — including the 2am moment when everything came down to the wireWhy she gives residency recipients a cash childcare stipend rather than on-site childcare — and what that trust meansThe Smith College Friday Tea tradition and the online community that supported her through the most isolated stretch of her lifeWriting about emotional abuse — “he never hit me” — and why that makes some readers deeply uncomfortableThe ethics of writing a memoir as a parent: how she handled writing about her son and his fatherWhy mother’s silence is not the solution to the complexity of women telling their storiesWriting Ring of Salt on the edge of a bathtub — and what that says about the art you can make in the life you haveRaising her son in an Irish-speaking region of Ireland — and what she’s observed about life in Ireland versus the USThe “keep it alive” approach to creative practice for caregiversWhat she hopes happens when someone comes to the Old Knitting Factory and gets to breathe for the first timeQuotes From This Episode“The accomplishment I’m most proud of is being a single mom. And I think that will always be true.”— Betsy Cornwell“I don’t think the brunt of all that complexity should be borne through the simple solution of mother’s silence. That is not right to me.”— Betsy Cornwell“The book that I could write is the book that I could write in the life that I have.”— Betsy Cornwell“Have you kept your art practice alive today? It’s just about keeping it alive.”— Betsy Cornwell“We’re kicking the bar down the road and wondering why our toe hurts.”— Ashley BlackingtonResources & LinksRing of Salt (memoir): available at any bookstore or via oldknittingfactory.comOld Knitting Factory: oldknittingfactory.comSupport the residency on PatreonAll books including YA novels: betsycornwell.comFriday Tea on Substack: find Betsy on SubstackConnect with Ashley:Website: https://www.ashleyblackington.comPodcast website: https://www.andbothpodcast.com/Dovetail® App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dovetail-app/id6744341822Instagram: @mydovetail.appLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyblackington/
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    59 分
  • 122. "Just Quit. We'll Figure It Out." Leaving corporate to build something of her own with Laura Navaquin

    122. "Just Quit. We'll Figure It Out." Leaving corporate to build something of her own with Laura Navaquin
    2026/05/15

    Laura Navaquin spent nearly 20 years in corporate America before one Wednesday meeting pushed her over the edge. Her husband said “just quit, we’ll figure it out.” She did, and then spent the next few weeks wondering if she’d made a catastrophic mistake before realizing she was exactly where she was supposed to be.

    Today Laura and her husband run four businesses rooted in real estate — a consulting practice, a wholesaling company, a framework for real estate agents called Beyond Commissions, and a contracting business — while raising four kids, three of whom are three and under. In this conversation, Ashley and Laura talk about the messy, non-linear reality of building something from scratch while staying present for the people who matter most.

    In This Episode

    1. Why Laura left corporate after 20 years — it wasn’t the job, it was losing control of her own schedule
    2. The Wednesday she quit on impulse and the fear that followed immediately after
    3. How she and her husband grew their real estate portfolio from four doors to twenty-one in under two years
    4. Why they scaled too fast, stepped back, and what that taught them about sustainable growth
    5. Creative financing — what it is and how it changed what was possible for them
    6. How four businesses became interconnected rather than overwhelming
    7. Beyond Commissions — the real estate agent framework they spent 2025 building and launched in January
    8. The entrepreneur catch-22: needing help, hiring help, and ending up doing it yourself anyway
    9. How they navigate four kids and four businesses — shared office, shared calendar, shared flexibility
    10. Getting kids involved in the business in age-appropriate ways
    11. Why the nine-year-old’s salsa company ambitions are being taken seriously
    12. The shift in how we talk about money, investing, and entrepreneurship with the next generation
    13. Where Laura sees things going — development, fundraising, and building on a larger scale

    Quotes From This Episode

    “Some weeks I take off entirely, or I work weekends and late nights — but I’m still able to work that schedule around my life.”

    — Laura Navaquin

    “Being able to have that flexibility and creativity with the way you do things allows you to pivot and still keep that business alive.”

    — Laura Navaquin

    “When you pressure test the system, then you start to pivot. Then you start to say, what is a reasonable ask for me?”

    — Ashley Blackington

    “I never saw myself in real estate in any capacity — but to see where we are nowadays and all the future plans that we’re making. It’s somewhat comical, but in all the best ways.”

    — Laura Navaquin

    “Non-traditional is becoming traditional.”

    — Ashley Blackington

    Find Laura

    1. LinkedIn & Instagram: @LauraNavaquin
    2. Website: lauranavaqquin.com
    3. Beyond Commissions: beyondcommissions.io




    Connect with Ashley:

    Website: https://www.ashleyblackington.com

    Podcast website: https://www.andbothpodcast.com/

    Dovetail® App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dovetail-app/id6744341822

    Instagram: @mydovetail.app

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyblackington/
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    52 分
  • 121. Death Doesn't Happen Like It Does in the Movies with Death Doula Jade Adgate

    121. Death Doesn't Happen Like It Does in the Movies with Death Doula Jade Adgate
    2026/05/01
    Everyone dies. And yet most of us have no idea what dying actually looks like — because we’ve been shielded from it, and because everything we’ve seen on screen is wrong.Jade Adgate is a death doula, educator, and founder of Farewell Fellowship in Middle Tennessee. She’s spent years walking alongside families at end of life — not as a tour guide, but as a fellow traveler — and she’s on a mission to normalize the experience of death so that fewer people have to face it completely unprepared.In this conversation, Ashley and Jade cover a lot of ground: the real dying process versus what we expect it to be, how we live is how we die, the role of control in caregiving, what those extended months of treatment are actually buying us, and what it looks like to bring sacredness back to the end of life — even when it’s messy and ordinary and nothing like the movies.In This EpisodeHow Jade got into death doula work- from Hurricane Katrina, to moving in with her great-aunt Sis, to hospice volunteeringThe parallel between parenting teenagers and supporting families at end of life, both require learning to hold while letting goHow death became less ordinary and why that’s a tragedyThe idea that modern medicine has learned to extend dying, not just lifeQuality versus quantity: what people think they’re buying with treatment versus what they’re actually gettingRoxanne: the client who tried to control every detail of her own death, and what Jade learned from herAdeline: a pediatric client who died just before her fifth birthday, and the home funeral that gave her family something differentWhy 90% of people end up in a hospital bed at end of life and why that matters to knowWhat actually happens in the hours after someone dies and why slowing down is the most important thing a death doula doesThe gap between the Forrest Gump death scene and realityHow Jade protects herself in this work as a self-described recovering codependent eldest daughterThe future of death doula work, bringing these tools into communities and families who can’t access a professionalQuotes From This Episode“How we live is how we die. Who we are is who we are when we’re dying.”— Jade Adgate“If we are going to buy more time, can we know at the beginning that this is the time we’re buying? It starts right now — instead of we’re going to do all these treatments and then start our time when you’re feeling better.”— Jade Adgate“Death is the teacher. As much as I think I might know, it is totally different for every single person.”— Jade Adgate“This is not wisdom that needs a gatekeeper. This is all of our collective wisdom.”— Jade Adgate“There are no monsters around corners if you know where all the corners are.”— Ashley BlackingtonResources & LinksFarewell Fellowship (in-person doula services, education & library): farewellfellowship.comInstagram: Farewell LibraryBook referenced: Gone From My Sight — Barbara CarnesShow referenced: Dying for Sex (Hulu)Connect with Ashley:Website: https://www.ashleyblackington.comPodcast website: https://www.andbothpodcast.com/Dovetail® App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dovetail-app/id6744341822Instagram: @mydovetail.appLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyblackington/
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    1 時間 3 分
  • 120. I Didn't Lose Myself in Motherhood. I Never Found Myself Before It with Libby Ward. April roundtable with Erin Holland.

    120. I Didn't Lose Myself in Motherhood. I Never Found Myself Before It with Libby Ward. April roundtable with Erin Holland.
    2026/04/17
    Libby Ward built one of the internet’s most recognizable platforms for honest motherhood, and she did it by saying the things most moms were too afraid to say out loud. Now she’s put it all in a book: Motherhood: On Losing My Mind and Finding Myself, published by Crown.In this co-hosted episode, Ashley and Erin sit down with Libby to trace the full arc, from the small town church community where motherhood was put on a pedestal, to the postpartum rage that finally broke her open, to the sociology class that reframed everything, to going viral on TikTok during a pandemic, to writing a book for Crown that she nearly wrote as someone else entirely.It’s a conversation about what happens when women stop doing everything for everyone else and start asking who they actually are, and why that question so often doesn’t get asked until something breaks.In This EpisodeWho Libby was before TikTok- a 26-year-old in a conservative church community trying to be every kind of mom at onceHow her second child’s higher needs broke the plate-spinning and sent her to therapy for the first timeWhy her postpartum depression showed up as rage, not sadness and why that made it harder to recognize and nameThe shame spiral of “what is wrong with me” and the therapy session that cracked it openThe sociology of sex and gender class that introduced her to the mental load, default parenting, and feminismFinding TikTok during the pandemic and posting as a form of dissociation, not really believing anyone would find herThe moment she stopped making humor content and decided she didn’t want to joke about things that were crushing her soulGoing no contact with her mom and how that coincided with the book deal coming throughThe writing process: imposter syndrome, a pivot away from research-heavy writing, and learning to trust her own storytellingWhy she didn’t lose herself in motherhood, she never found herself before itDoing it guilty: why waiting to feel ready or unashamed means never changing anythingWhat “honest motherhood” actually means and why it starts internally, not out loudQuotes From This Episode:“I didn’t lose myself in motherhood. I actually never found myself or knew myself when I was younger. Motherhood was the catalyst to help me find the self I never knew before motherhood even began.”— Libby Ward“It’s not that I’m exhausted because I’m not enough. It’s that the load is too much for any one person. That shift is so important.”— Libby Ward“How do you get rid of the guilt and shame? You just do it guilty. You do it feeling a little bit ashamed. And then you’re retraining your brain — actually, we survived. Actually, it’s okay.”— Libby Ward“I am so tired of women being the butt end of jokes. I no longer want to joke about the things that are crushing my soul.”— Libby Ward“You deserve to be well just for the mere fact that you’re a person who deserves to be well. Your kids just happen to benefit from that.”— Libby WardAbout the BookMotherhood: On Losing My Mind and Finding Myself by Libby Ward is available now wherever books are sold — Amazon, Indigo, and most major retailers.Find LibbyWebsite: libbyward.comInstagram: @libbywardTikTok: @libbywardofficialConnect with Ashley:Website: https://www.ashleyblackington.comPodcast website: https://www.andbothpodcast.com/Dovetail® App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dovetail-app/id6744341822Instagram: @mydovetail.appLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyblackington/
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    1 時間 8 分
  • 119. The Mental Load Nobody Names: Reparenting Yourself While Raising Someone Else with Michelle Gibson

    119. The Mental Load Nobody Names: Reparenting Yourself While Raising Someone Else with Michelle Gibson
    2026/04/03

    What does it mean to break a cycle when you’re still inside it? Michelle Gibson is a psychotherapist, CEO of Gibson and Associates and the Nest Collective, and a mom of one, and she has spent her career helping people find language for experiences they were never taught to name.

    In this conversation, Michelle and Ashley cover a lot of ground: childhood trauma and the path into psychotherapy, the complicated terrain of parent estrangement, why adverse childhood experiences are disproportionately common in entrepreneurs, and what it looks like to lead a business and a family, from a place of genuine self-connection rather than survival mode.

    It’s an honest, warm, and unexpectedly funny conversation about doing the work while also just trying to get dinner on the table.


    In This Episode

    1. How Michelle’s childhood (alcoholism, trauma, adverse childhood experiences) led her to psychotherapy
    2. The magnetic effect of finding language for what you’ve been through
    3. Why social-emotional learning in schools is changing what middle school looks like for kids today
    4. Reparenting yourself while parenting someone else — and the double labor that involves
    5. The rise of estrangement from parents and what’s driving it
    6. Michelle shares her own experience estranging from her father — and why having a daughter changed the calculation
    7. Ashley shares her own experience with estrangement
    8. Why entrepreneurs so often come from hard childhoods — grit as a survival response
    9. The moment Michelle looked up from years of grind and realized she’d been in survival mode her whole life
    10. What it means to lead from a heart-led place versus a fear-led one
    11. The privilege of support — naming it honestly so other parents don’t compare their back end to someone else’s front end
    12. “Your parents’ ceiling is your floor” — and how Michelle thinks about expanding that for her daughter


    Resources & Links

    1. Gibson and Associates: gibsoncounselling.ca
    2. The Nest Collective: thenestcollective.ca
    3. Email: michelle@gibsoncounselling.ca or michelle@thenestcollective.ca
    4. Find Michelle on LinkedIn


    Connect with Ashley:

    Website: https://www.ashleyblackington.com

    Podcast website: https://www.andbothpodcast.com/

    Dovetail® App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dovetail-app/id6744341822

    Instagram: @mydovetail.app

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyblackington/
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    1 時間
  • 118. You Don’t Have to Be Strong: Rethinking Grief at Work & at Home with Sarah Kagan

    118. You Don’t Have to Be Strong: Rethinking Grief at Work & at Home with Sarah Kagan
    2026/03/20

    What happens when two of the biggest life transitions collide at exactly the same time? For grief coach Sarah Kagan, that meant losing her mother at six months pregnant and learning to live through loss while preparing to bring a new life into the world.

    Sarah is a mother to two young kids, a former corporate professional who walked away from her career to follow a calling, and someone who is building a platform to change the way we talk about grief, especially in the workplace.

    In this conversation, Ashley and Sarah dig into what it really means to grieve in real time, why the pressure to “be strong” is one of the most isolating things we do to each other, and what it looks like to hold loss and love at the same time, without having to choose between them.

    In This Episode

    1. What it means to be a “motherless mother” and why grief hits differently once you’re a parent
    2. The moment at her mother’s Shiva that taught Sarah everything about how we avoid grief
    3. Why “you’re so brave” and “at least she’s not suffering” do more harm than good
    4. The martyrdom trap — and how stepping out of it changed everything for Sarah
    5. The statistic that 51% of people leave their jobs within a year of a major loss
    6. How Sarah rebuilt her work life after leaving corporate — no 9-to-5, Wednesdays for arts and crafts, out by 4pm
    7. Why grief needs a better spokesperson (and what menopause got right)
    8. The problem with bereavement leave policies that tell you who you’re allowed to mourn
    9. Ashley opens up about losing her father to suicide and the shame layered on top of certain kinds of loss
    10. How to slow down after caregiving — and why your body will eventually make you
    11. Sarah’s grief workbook and creative morning kits: where does the love go when someone dies?

    Quotes From This Episode

    “There’s so much pressure to cover up or perform or just show up and be like, yeah, I’m fine. But it is a big deal and you need someone else to validate that experience for you.” — Sarah Kagan

    “Trying to put a period on something that’s an ellipsis.” — Sarah Kagan, on toxic positivity around grief

    “No one helps you speed up. They just throw it at you and you do it." — Ashley Blackington

    Connect with Sarah

    Find Sarah on LinkedIn: Sarah Kagan

    Website: keriahcoaching.com

    Instagram: @griefcoachsarah


    Connect with Ashley:

    Website: https://www.ashleyblackington.com

    Podcast website: https://www.andbothpodcast.com/

    Dovetail® App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dovetail-app/id6744341822

    Instagram: @mydovetail.app

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyblackington/
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    56 分
  • 117. When Life Hands You Everything at Once: Navigating Grief, Love, and New Beginnings with Caroline Benefield

    117. When Life Hands You Everything at Once: Navigating Grief, Love, and New Beginnings with Caroline Benefield
    2026/03/06

    In this episode, host Ashley Blackington sits down with Caroline Benefield—digital marketer, stepparent, and someone who found herself living a decade of life in 18 months. Caroline shares what it really means to become the third parent in a blended family, how she navigated losing both parents while building a new family dynamic, and what happens when your dream job turns out not to be your dream.

    Between January 2022 and June 2023, Caroline got engaged, bought a house, moved in with her fiancé and his two kids, lost both parents, managed two estates as an only child, canceled her wedding, got married on her back porch, left corporate life, wrote a romance series, and started a digital marketing business. Through it all, she's been learning how to show up as a secure, trusted adult in her stepkids' lives—with boundaries, intention, and a lot of therapy.

    In This Episode

    -What it means to be "the third parent" in a blended family—not the replacement, not the villain, but an additional secure adult

    -Why Caroline's approach is about enhancing existing support rather than reinventing the wheel

    -How she and her husband decided which parenting responsibilities she'd take on—and which ones stay with the biological parents

    -The importance of moving into a new house together rather than slotting into an existing family home

    -Navigating grief while building a new family—losing her father after a decade-long decline and her mother suddenly within 18 months

    -Estate planning lessons: why her mom's organized estate closed in 9 months while her dad's is still open after 4 years

    -What happens when your dream job (becoming a romance author) turns out not to be your dream

    -Why she started a digital marketing business specifically for moms and women—the people shortest on time with the most to give

    -The fiber arts connection: how teaching the kids to crochet and needlepoint became a way to share something her own mom taught her

    Key Quotes

    "My job as a stepparent is not to reinvent the wheel in their lives. My job is to come in and give them extra support and resources to navigate all of the complications and emotions that come with little bodies and little brains."

    — Caroline Benefield

    "If you are not married to your partner and you don't intend to be, please, please set them up for success. Please set everything up."

    — Caroline Benefield on estate planning

    Resources & Links

    Caroline's website: southerngritdigital.com

    Services: Digital marketing for creatives, entrepreneurs, moms, and women (email marketing, compliance audits, digital ads, full-service packages)

    Action Steps for Listeners

    1. If you're dating someone with kids: Ask yourself if you can be a safe and secure adult in their lives. That's the starting point.

    2. If you're in a blended family: Have clear conversations about boundaries and responsibilities before integration gets messy. Who handles discipline? What decisions require both biological parents?

    3. Estate planning reminder: Set up rights of survivorship, trusts, and clear documentation. Even if you have a will, it's not enough if things have to go through probate.

    4. If you're a long-term partner but not married: Make sure you're set up legally. Your partner's kids will be next of kin, not you, unless paperwork says otherwise.

    5. Therapy isn't optional: Caroline, her husband, and their relationship all have their own therapy. It's how they navigate the hard stuff.

    6. For moms and women entrepreneurs: If you're at the point where you know you need marketing help but don't know where to start, visit southerngritdigital.com.



    Connect with Ashley:

    Website: https://www.ashleyblackington.com

    Podcast website: https://www.andbothpodcast.com/

    Dovetail® App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dovetail-app/id6744341822

    Instagram: @mydovetail.app

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyblackington/
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    1 時間 4 分
  • 116. Redefining Ambition, Identity, and Success in Life’s Transitions, a Roundtable with Dr. Anne Welsh and Ben Katt

    116. Redefining Ambition, Identity, and Success in Life’s Transitions, a Roundtable with Dr. Anne Welsh and Ben Katt
    2026/02/27

    This episode encourages embracing the messy middle, shedding old identities, taking small intentional steps, and cultivating a growth mindset as we navigate life's many transitions, personally and in parenting.

    Big question - What happens when the identity that once kept you strong… starts to burn you out?

    Dr. Anne Welsh shares her work supporting ambitious, working moms, and emphasizes the complexity of personal change. Ben Katt discusses his experience with spirituality, community, and social healing, focusing on midlife transformation. We touch upon letting go and the importance of small changes, especially in parenting and the evolving relationship with children, as well as the importance of celebrating small victories amidst self care.

    Discover practical insights on how small shifts, self-reflection, and celebrating milestones can transform your experience of change and growth.

    Key Topics:

    • How to navigate the fear of letting go of old identities and armor
    • The concept of the "hero's journey" and the call to adventure in midlife
    • Small, intentional shifts versus major life upheavals for meaningful change
    • The importance of slowing down, reflection, and micro-moments of joy
    • Parenting milestones as rites of passage and opportunities for celebration
    • Addressing grief and loss in parenting and personal transitions
    • Embracing a growth mindset about aging and continuous learning
    • Practical tips for self-trust, desire-led choices, and pacing oneself during change

    Connect with Anne:

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/drannewelsh/

    www.instagram.com/drannewelsh/

    www.drannewelsh.com


    Connect with Ben:

    www.benkattofficial.com

    Modern Elder Academy

    Book: The Way Home

    Within Prison Meditation Project

    Substack

    Instagram


    Connect with Ashley:

    Website: https://www.ashleyblackington.com

    Podcast website: https://www.andbothpodcast.com/

    Dovetail® App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dovetail-app/id6744341822

    Instagram: @mydovetail.app

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyblackington/
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    49 分