Design Your Life, Your Way - Strategic Growth for the Conscious Midlife Entrepreneur

You’ve called it “just” being home with the kids, or “just” caring for Mom. But the years you spent away from your career were never blank, and it’s time someone helped you see what they built. Dr. Ann Marie Peters, author of “We’ll Be Right Back,” joins me to reframe the midlife career pause. We unpack identity loss, the hidden skills you’ve been building all along, and gentle first steps for returning to work or starting something new after 50.

Ann Marie has spent years researching midlife and mid-career women who paused their careers for a year or more before coming back. We look at why so many women return to purpose-driven work by choice, not by default. And we explore how the fundraisers, committees, and family logistics you’ve managed add up to real, marketable skills. You’ll walk away with a kinder way to tell your story and a first step you can take this week, whether you’re heading back to work, into a new role, or into a business of your own.

About My Guest

Dr. Ann Marie Peters is an executive coach, leadership strategist, and the author of “We’ll Be Right Back.” Drawing on her PhD research and decades of leadership experience, she helps women reframe career pauses, rebuild confidence, and reclaim their identity, purpose, and professional direction after caregiving, burnout, or life transitions. Her research focused on midlife, mid-career women who returned to the workplace after a pause of a year or longer. She knows from both data and lived stories that the years away are never blank.

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You’ve sensed it for a while: something is off and he won’t say it. Adventurer and author Brian “Dixon” Dixon spent 20 years living a life that wasn’t his until a near-fatal pulmonary embolism woke him up. In this edition of Design Your Life, Your Way, Dixon and I talk about midlife drift, why women sense it first, and how to reclaim your life after 50 without waiting for a crisis.

This conversation is for anyone who’s been carrying a quiet knowing that your partner, or you, has drifted far from the person you used to be. Dixon shares how a career he never chose, a painful divorce and a life-threatening health scare showed him he’d been living someone else’s life, and how launching a paraglider at 52 helped him find his true north again. I also share my side of the story: staying silent out of fear, the grief of losing my sister and the moment I knew my values and marriage were no longer aligned. Togther, we explore midlife reinvention, rediscovering your passion, and when to start honoring your own path. You’ll leave with less self-blame, more clarity, and the courage to have one honest conversation about what you still want to do in this life.

About My Guest

Brian Dixon, who goes by Dixon, is a Colorado-based adventurer, author and speaker who helps men recognize and recover from the quiet misalignment so many carry into midlife. After twenty years of what he calls “drift,” including a career he never wanted, a brutal divorce and a life-threatening pulmonary embolism, he returned to a dream he’d set aside at 27 and launched a paraglider off Lookout Mountain at 52. His work resonates deeply with women who sense something is “off” before men do. Dixon’s upcoming book is built around three arcs: Wake Up, Realign and Move Forward.

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What if some of the stress you’re carrying in your business isn’t yours to carry at all? In this episode, I’m taking a fresh look at the Serenity Prayer and what it can teach us about building a business in midlife: accepting what you can’t control, having the courage to change what you can, and developing the wisdom to know the difference.

If you’re a woman over 50 who feels stretched thin by the demands of your business, you’ll discover practical ways to shift your focus from controlling outcomes to taking aligned action. And at the end, I’ll share a short Light Language message to help you release what you can’t control and reconnect you with your inner wisdom.

Words to Remember

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Feeling fed up with your business after 50? If you’re tired of pushing, waiting to be inspired and quietly wondering if it’s time to quit, relax. You’re not finished. You’re just tired. And those are two very different things.

I’ve been feeling that way myself, which is why this is my first solo episode in a few weeks. What brought me back to the mic was a Facebook post a friend of mine shared from “Brad & The Goat.”

FYI – I had a short internet outage around the 25:00 mark when I started discussing the 7th piece of advice: “Look for tiny proof.”

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Have you ever considered how much it really costs to battle getting older? At age 65, Becky Bolt decided it was time to quit paying that price and embrace being an elder. I sat down with Becky to talk about the inspiration for her booklet, “Aging Gratefully” and the real difference between accepting the aging process and appreciating it.

Becky shares the grocery store moment that changed how she saw aging, the real difference between accepting getting older and actually appreciating it, and why she prefers the word “elder” to “elderly.” Together we explore forgiveness as a form of freedom, grief as proof of love, and what it truly costs — emotionally, physically, and spiritually — to keep refusing the elder years instead of stepping into them. If you’ve been holding tightly to youth, to old grudges, or to grief you haven’t let breathe, this episode offers a gentler way through.

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When you get into your 60s, forgetting someone’s name isn’t easy to laugh off anymore. It often brings up real fears of losing your mind due to Alzheimer’s. That’s why I’m happy to share this conversation with a dementia expert who explains the difference between normal aging and real cognitive decline.

Behavioral specialist Lisa Skinner reveals the surprising list of treatable conditions that often get misdiagnosed as dementia. We also talk about what the newest research actually says about reducing your risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, why learning a new language or instrument genuinely protects your brain, and how to support a loved one who’s struggling with compassion instead of correction. This is a conversation about healing in midlife and how to trade vague fear for real information, and real information for peace of mind.

About Lisa Skinner

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Healing in midlife doesn’t need to be on anyone’s timeline but your own. Reiki master Tracy Searight joins us to discuss what happens when you stop rushing your recovery and learn how to harness the healing wisdom you already carry.

After losing her sister suddenly in 2020, Tracy felt completely broken, unable to teach or trust her own voice. In this conversation, she explains how the energy modality of Reiki became the tool that helped her regulate grief, rebuild her confidence, and eventually start over completely at 50. We talk about the challenges of being an empty nester, moving cross country and starting a whole new business. And Tracy discusses why she believes so many women sabotage their own healing by comparing their recovery to everyone else’s. If you’ve ever felt like you’re “behind” on your own life, this conversation is for you.

About My Guest

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You started your business to build a life that felt like you. So, why does opening your laptop these days feel like clocking into someone else’s job? If you’re a midlife entrepreneur who built something meaningful, and it’s just not landing the way it used to, this episode is for you. I’m talking about what happens when a business you built with love stops feeling like an expression of who you are, and why that’s not a failure. It’s simply information.

I’ll walk you through my signature L.O.V.E. Method as a lens for reassessing your business (and honestly, any area of your life), share the personal story behind why I know this territory so well, and lead you through a short light language session to help release what may be stuck in your energy field. I’ll also introduce you to the Life On Purpose Accelerator, a brand-new 30-day program for women ready to gain clarity and move into action.

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If you’ve ever doubted whether you still had the “music in you,” to take a bold leap at midlife, this conversation with Edi Matsumoto offers proof that reinvention is possible. After 30 years as a nurse practitioner and disallusioned by the health care system, Edi traded in her stethoscope for a paintbrush. We talk about the moment she realized her calling had shifted, the leap of faith that led her to open her own gallery in California, and how a whimsical concept called “Otter Therapy” became a genuine source of joy and healing for thousands of people.

About My Guest

Connect with Edi

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Working harder was never your plan. It just became the habit. If you’re a heart-centered woman over 50 running your own business, you know the drill: do it all yourself and keep pushing until it gets done. But that hustle, hyper-vigilent, worker-bee mentality is detrimental to your health and the health of your business. This week, I’m showing you why constant pushing blocks your intuition and caps your company’s growth. And I’ll share two simple practices to help you lead your business with purpose, instead of hustle.

This episode speaks to the exhaustion of being a solopreneur, the guilt of stepping back, and the deeper question so many women in midlife ask in this season: Is this business still serving me? I share how the first pillar of my L.O.V.E. Method, Let Go and Let God, opens the door to a different way of leading. And you’ll experience a light language transmission designed to help release the enrgetic blocks keeping you in control mode.

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