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What does your inner critic sound like?

In this episode, I want to introduce my coach, Lorna Wilson, and dive deep into how to silence your inner critic, identify the opinions or feedback you should be paying attention to, and how not to be reliant on receiving praise from others. I share how Lorna has helped me reframe criticism and tap into my own inner mentor.

Lorna Wilson's journey as a life coach began with a story of courage and resilience. As a young widow, she learned early on that navigating life is certainly not always easy, but it's our life experiences that can make us stronger and more determined to create a better future.

Drawing on this strength, Lorna became a certified professional Life Coach, using her personal journey to help countless women on their own paths to personal growth and fulfillment. She then became a certified alcohol-free coach, and now also helps women achieve a healthier, happier...

Watch the podcast, above, or listen below.

This is Part 2 of the “How to Do Less and Get More in Midlife” Episode with Dr. Sarah Baillie, N.D., and coach. In Part 1, Sarah and I discussed why so many women reach overwhelm and burnout in the care sandwich that is midlife.  We also shared our favourite coaching strategies and tools to help busy women scale back on their to-do lists and clear some space to bring in more of the things that serve them.

In this installment, we provide some concrete strategies for standing in personal responsibility and figuring out what you need more of in your life to create the next fulfilling joyful chapter because no one is coming to do it for you.

What matters to you about how you live the next 20 years of your life?

What do you need more of?

If you don’t know, how do you find out?

To contact Sarah Baillie about coaching services, email her at: [email protected]

Watch the podcast, above, or listen below.

In this episode Sarah and I talk about why so many of us reach overwhelm and burnout in the care sandwich that is midlife. 

We share our favourite coaching strategies and tools to help busy women scale back on their to-do lists and clear some space to bring in more of the things that serve them (listen to Part 2 of this episode, coming soon, for those strategies!)

Topics include:

• being v. doing
• how to say no more often
• how to care less
• how to figure out what’s no longer serving you (energy drains v. gains)
• people pleasing and why it’s a dishonest way to show up
• how it’s not serving you or the people you are pleasing

We also discuss the answer to the most common question we hear from the women we support: "Is this IT?" (Spoiler: Nope. There’s SO MUCH MORE great stuff to come.)

 For more on coaching with Sarah Baillie, email her at: [email protected]

Watch the podcast, above, or listen below.

Julia Anderson shares her incredible story of leaving the “cult-like” experience of her evangelistic Christian upbringing (including its purity culture) at the age of 19 to raise her newborn daughter and create the independent, successful life she craved. Julia is now the CEO of the Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health (CanWaCH) and has over 15 years of senior and executive-level experience in international development, not-for-profits, civil society, human rights, and gender equality. As CanWaCH CEO, she continues to champion bold, innovative - and even disruptive - approaches to advancing the health and rights of women and girls around the world.

Julia and I met over a year ago in an online writing group. Julia discusses her experience as a female CEO in the non-profit sector, the stresses associated with that, and how she works to prioritize and maintain her own balance and that of her staff (to...

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Tabbin Almond is a certified coach living in Devon, England, who is passionate about removing the stigma and creating meaningful employee support around alcohol use disorder. She is committed to changing the corporate wellness conversation to include alcohol as an important factor in employees’ physical and mental health.

Tabbin has a book in the works called The Wellness Conversation We’re Not Having, where she explores the corporate world’s failure to address the role that over-drinking is playing in many cases of employee burnout, depression, and anxiety. Employees are often hesitant to ask for help with their drinking because of the stigma and fear of career reprisals. If they do ask for help, the help is often woefully inadequate and misguided.

Tabbin shares her personal alcohol story, including how she found her “drinking boots” during her years as a successful advertising exec, how hypnotherapy led her...

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My best friend Megan and I, who have five young adult children between us, reflect on our transition to an empty nest together this fall. We share the story of our unique lifelong friendship, and our shared experience entering motherhood, midlife, and now empty nesting together. We recount some of our favourite parts of living without kids again and some of the unforeseen challenges (or are they perks?) like chocolate-covered peanuts for lunch and key lime pie for dinner, playlist control (Piano Chill, anyone?), finding a “new normal” with your partner, and the lack of any requirement to follow a routine.

We discuss the toughest parts of not having your children close by and share what we did to find our own sense of purpose before our nests emptied and how that has helped to make this a surprisingly joyful time of life. We explore the idea of anticipatory grief and provide some very helpful insight into how to...

Watch the podcast, above, or listen below. 

Sara McElroy is a former hustle culture devotee, ex-chief marketing officer, the Wall Street Journal’s poster girl for pandemic career burnout, and a two-time member of the Great Resignation: class of 2021 and 2022.

Following a stress-induced shingles diagnosis in early 2021, Sara decided to hit the reset button on her life; she quit her hard-won CMO job and trekked to Peru's Sacred Valley to reset her frayed nervous system.

When she returned, she relocated from the buzzy metropolis of Atlanta to the beach in South Florida for a new job and a fresh start. But she once again encountered deeply ingrained cultural issues in her new role, and ultimately, she walked away again.

Finding herself in the company of millions of other women who also set unfulfilling jobs ablaze during the Great Resignation, she returned to her journalism roots and began to explore the stories, breaking points, and defining moments that led women to seek...

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Kelley Kitley is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and therapist with over 20 years of experience in the field, a sought-after international mental health media expert, a mom of four, and a bestselling author of her autobiography of survival “My self.” She has appeared in hundreds of publications, podcasts, live news, and radio shows including The Today Show, The Chicago Tribune, Self magazine, Shape, Dr Oz, The Drew Barrymore Show, the Wall Street Journal, and the Oprah Magazine, and owns Serendipitous Psychotherapy, in Chicago. 

Kelley shares her story of trauma, alcohol dependence, and recovery as well as some of her best strategies as a therapist for helping women reduce overwhelm and get more present in their lives.

Kelley and I discuss why anxiety is on the rise and the growing epidemic of “busyness” for women. 

We provide practical, accessible ideas for creating moments of mindfulness in your...

Watch the podcast, above, or listen below.  

In this short podcast episode, I provide listeners with an update on my abrupt transition to empty nester this fall, including the blindsiding grief I felt this spring and how I worked through it to find the joy on the other side. Since my children are only seven months apart, and in the same grade, they both left their childhood home for university residences the same week.

I share a piece I wrote called “Emptying the Nest” that will resonate with mothers everywhere, where I explore how it feels as your young adult children begin their slow leaving process and then disappear from your home.

If you’ve got children (or nieces, nephews or step-kids or godchildren), don’t skip this one – it’s short and bittersweet but also universal in the emotions involved in this natural transition period in midlife.

Please feel free to share this episode with any moms (or dads!) you know who are in...

Watch the podcast, above, or listen below.

Sarah and I discuss a couple of recent news articles about the death of ambition since the emergence of COVID. People are working less or are less invested in their work, with more opting for early retirement than ever. There’s apparently a rebellion happening against “pointless presenteeism”, and Sarah and I are 100% here for it.

We explore and deconstruct the social definitions of success for women and consider how doing less might actually contribute to being more, and lead to an easier, more abundant existence.

Is the conventional definition of success and ambition even achievable?

What happens when we let go of our false idea of control and shift our ambition into “being”?

Might this be the key to life satisfaction and happiness? We believe so.

Don’t worry, it’s not as esoteric as it sounds. As always, we keep our conversation grounded in real life and have a few good laughs.

...