NOTE: This episode goes live for upgraded subscribers on Substack on Wednesday 8/12/26, and then 48 hours later for everyone else.

You look fine on paper. Maybe better than fine. Your calendar is full, your team relies on you, your family is fed, the emails are answered. And underneath all of it, something essential is quietly slipping away and you cannot say it out loud because who complains about a life that looks like this?

This week on The Comeback Show, I sit down with Lisa Stark, a corporate leader turned self-leadership and identity coach who calls this pattern the cost of the illusion. Lisa spent 25 years in healthcare finance. She was leading teams of a hundred and a billion in revenue by 26. She was also performing herself into a corner, and it took her decades to realize her exhaustion was not a personal failing but a warning shot.

This conversation is for the woman who is winning at everything and can't tell anyone she is losing herself. We talk about the identity gap, the identity upgrade, practical energetics as a real toolkit (no woo required), self-authority as the work of reclaiming a voice you did not realize you had outsourced, and why letting your wins actually land in your body is the difference between rebuilding self-trust and just surviving.

What You'll Hear

→ Why high-functioning is not the same as well, and how the disconnect shows up in your body and your relationships long before it shows up in your calendar

→ What Lisa means by the identity gap and the identity upgrade, and how to tell which side of the threshold you are actually on

→ Practical Energetics: the real, boring, non-woo toolkit for regulating your nervous system in high-pressure moments (yes, including the water reset trick that would have saved us both in corporate)

→ Who high-capacity women most often outsource their voice to, and the pattern-breaking work of taking it back

→ Why clarity comes from movement (not the other way around), and how to act before you feel ready without shaming yourself for stumbling

→ The let-it-land practice that rebuilds self-trust at the nervous system level, and why the amnesia most of us have about our own accomplishments is quietly costing us capacity

→ The persona theory: why so many of us never feel like we belong, even in the rooms we built, and what happens when we stop performing in our closest relationships

→ Lisa's programs coming this summer (Mirror Mirror, Satisfied, Move at the Speed of Trust) and how to be first in line when doors open

Key Takeaway

"You have a 100% success record of surviving everything that life has thrown at you. So why would we ever doubt that we can't handle the next?"

— Lisa Stark

Timestamps

00:00   The Cost of the Illusion

01:54   Lisa Stark's Rise

02:28   Teen Mom to Leader

06:26   Proving Herself at Work

08:38   What Success Cost Her

10:17   Midlife Crack Moment

13:24   Jenn's Breaking Point

15:21   Amnesia and Highlights

19:17   Naming the Identity Gap

23:19   Identity Upgrade Process

27:05   Movement Before Clarity

32:16   Practical Energetics Explained

35:27   Energy Maintenance Basics

35:57   Water Reset Technique

36:38   Grounding Without Woo

38:40   Pre-Meeting Shielding

40:36   Grounded Meeting Presence

42:25   Energy Tools For Moms

45:05   Self-Authority Explained

45:31   Outsourcing Your Voice

51:15   Rewiring New Responses

55:18   Let Wins Land

58:44   Intuition Tracking Journal

59:49   Personas Block Belonging

1:02:46   Programs and Where to Find Lisa

1:05:48   Final Takeaway: You Are Enough

Connect with Lisa Stark

Website: lisastark.co

Instagram: @lisa.stark.co

Facebook: facebook.com/lisa.stark.co

Email list (Mirror Mirror, Satisfied, Move at the Speed of Trust): Join Lisa's email list

Work with Lisa 1:1: [email protected]

Connect with Jenn Fast

Free Executive Function Self-Assessment: Take the assessment

The Comeback Letter: Subscribe on Substack

Instagram: @itsjennfast

Website: reinventionwithjennfast.com

If this episode hit something in you, share it with the woman in your life who needs to hear it. Subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next, and leave a five-star review if you have a minute. It really does help more women find the show.

#TheComebackShow

For years you have been told the same thing: if you cannot stop reaching for sugar, you just need more willpower. More discipline. A little more white-knuckling. This episode takes that whole story apart. The voice in your head that says you should not eat that, then twenty minutes later is begging you to, is not weakness. It is biology, and it gets loudest at the exact moment you have the least left to fight it with.

My guest is Laura Banks, a nutrition health coach who helps women quiet what she calls food noise, the constant inner monologue about what you should and should not eat. Laura is a former third-grade teacher who once locked her classroom door after the final bell so she could binge in secret, five days a week. She healed her own relationship with food, lost 30 pounds without medication, and has since helped more than eighty-five women do the same. She brings the science, which is exactly what my nerdy, data-loving audience wants.

This is a conversation about cravings, blood sugar, stress, perimenopause, and the boundaries it takes to protect your health when the people around you are not on the same page. But underneath all of it, it is about something bigger: that the war with food was never yours to win on willpower alone, and that food freedom is actually possible.

What You’ll Hear

Why the voice that will not stop thinking about food is biology, not a lack of willpower

The two kinds of cravings, physical and emotional, and how to tell which one you are having

What the blood sugar rollercoaster actually does to your brain, your mood, and your next decision

Why your body screams for sugar when what it truly needs is protein, fiber, movement, or sleep

How chronic stress and perimenopause make cravings louder, and why that is not a character flaw

The all-or-nothing mindset that quietly sabotages every fresh start, and how to break the cycle

Real scripts for protecting your health when the people you live with are not on board

Why the most selfish thing you can do is refuse to take care of yourself

Key Takeaway

There is not just one way to heal your cravings. It is entirely possible to live a life of food freedom, where you are not shackled by the thoughts of food. You can be present with the people you love. That is possible, without medication and without anything extreme. It is simple shifts to your habits and your mindset.

— Laura Banks

Timestamps

00:00 Sugar Is Biology

01:09 Meet Laura Banks

02:33 Her Sugar Spiral

05:34 Bingeing And Breakthrough

07:37 Restriction Doesnt Work

09:51 What Is Food Noise

12:08 Blood Sugar Rollercoaster

15:22 Stress Makes Cravings Loud

17:35 Midlife And Perimenopause

20:13 Protein Over Sugar

22:20 Metabolism And Cravings

23:36 Long Lasting Fuel

25:03 Mindset Makes It Stick

26:54 All Or Nothing Trap

28:20 Boundaries At Home

30:38 Gentle Family Habits

34:57 Stop Feeling Selfish

37:11 Where To Find Laura

38:35 Food Freedom Takeaway

39:46 Final Call To Action

Connect with Laura Banks

bhealthyhabits.com

Instagram + TikTok: @laura.b.healthy

Free guide: The Meals I Ate to Lose 30 Pounds and Keep It Off

Her podcast: Isn’t She Powerful

Hear the other half of our swap: my guest episode on Isn’t She Powerful (stress, boundaries, and burnout)

Connect with Jenn Fast

reinventionwithjennfast.com

Nutrition Foundations: start with my free 60 High-Protein Snack Ideas ebook, then explore the recipe collections in my shop.

Free Executive Function Self-Assessment

The Comeback Letter newsletter

Instagram: @itsjennfast

[email protected]

Recorded and edited on Descript.

If this one landed, subscribe on Substack and YouTube so you never miss an episode, and share it with the woman in your life who has been at war with food for too long. New episodes of The Comeback Show every other Wednesday for upgraded Substack subscribers, and 48 hours later for everyone else.

THE COMEBACK SHOW  •  EPISODE 15

The Truth About Leaving a Toxic Career (I Was the Other Frog)

With Jen Fieldman on Quitting Without a Plan, Perimenopause, and the AI Tools That Brought Her Back

About This Episode

Somewhere in the middle of a career you built with everything you had, your body starts breaking down. The stress you used to push through will not push anymore. And you catch yourself thinking things you would never say out loud, like maybe if you got sick enough, someone would make the choice for you. Because leaving? That is the part almost nobody tells you how to actually do.

This week I sit down with Jen Fieldman, a business strategist and Human Design practitioner for women entrepreneurs managing brain fog, chronic fatigue, and chronic pain. Before this version of her business existed, Jen spent close to twenty years inside ad agencies, research vendors, and corporate marketing in Minneapolis. The last decade of that stretch was, in her words, toxic everywhere she went. She did not leave dramatically. She did not have a savings cushion. She did not even have a backup plan. What she had was eighteen months that almost killed her brain, a proposal her boss handed her one ordinary Tuesday, and just enough of a nest egg to jump.

This is the honest version of the leaving-corporate story. The one where you do not have six months of savings and a clean handoff. Where you move in with your parents in your forties to make the math work. Where multiple medication reactions, perimenopause dismissed by your OB, and Crohn flares nearly finish what corporate started. And it is the story of coming back online, with AI tools she built for herself first and Human Design as the operating manual she wishes someone had handed her twenty years ago.

What You Will Hear

Why the Boiling Frog Metaphor Is the Most Honest Description of a Slowly-Toxic Career, and Which Frog Most Women Are Being

The Moment a High-Performing Woman Realizes She Is Quietly Rooting for Hospitalization, and What That Thought Actually Means

What Leaving Corporate Without a Partner, Without Savings, and Without a Plan Really Costs, Including the Parts the Influencer Version of This Story Leaves Out

Why Fifty Percent of Women in Perimenopause Are Prescribed Antidepressants When Hormones Are Often the Real Story

How to Advocate for Hormone Testing and HRT When Your OB Is Dismissing Your Symptoms

How Jen Built Claude AI Skills for Her Own Brain Fog Days Before Realizing the Whole Capacity-Constrained Community Needed Them

What Human Design Actually Is (and Is Not), and How a 5/2 Emotional Generator Makes Decisions Differently Than Corporate Ever Taught Her

The F-You Mission: What It Looks Like to Build a Business on Your Own Terms Without Asking Anyone Permission First

Key Takeaway

You are not alone. You are not crazy. Even if you might have depression or anxiety, some of that can be your hormones. If you are dealing with weird symptoms, find someone who will listen to you. This is part of giving choice, and part of breaking down the suffer-in-silence thing.

-Jen Fieldman

Timestamps

00:00 Toxic Career Teaser

01:04 Meet Jen Fieldman

04:01 Finding Her Niche

05:42 Seen in the Inbox

07:25 Frog in the Pot

08:55 Wishing for a Crisis

12:22 The Last Straw Proposal

15:04 Quitting Without a Plan

17:29 The Real Money Math

21:30 Only Income Pressure

23:34 Who Am I Now

26:51 Healing as an Entrepreneur

27:50 Eighteen Months of Brain Fog

30:06 Perimenopause Reality Check

32:51 Menopause Timing Confusion

33:50 Hormones vs Antidepressants

35:33 Brain Fog Root Causes

36:55 AI Brain Fog Busters

39:45 Human Design Explained

41:49 Reading Your Chart

46:21 Profiles and Lines

49:04 Human Design in Business

51:09 The F You Mission

53:26 Hope for Next Generation

55:45 You Are Not Alone

57:29 Where to Find Jenn

58:23 Final Takeaway and Wrap

Connect With Jen Fieldman

Website: jenfieldman.com

New: One-on-One Strategy Session (personalized with Human Design and astrology)

Free Resource: The Brain Fog Busters Claude Skills Pack

Instagram: @jenfieldman

Connect With Jenn Fast

Take the Free Executive Function Self-Assessment: reinventionwithjennfast.com/executive-function-assessment-optin

Website: reinventionwithjennfast.com

Instagram: @itsjennfast

Email: [email protected]

One More Thing

If this conversation gave you words for something you have been feeling but could not name, share it with the friend still sitting in the slowly-warming water. That is how comebacks travel. And if you loved this episode, the kindest thing you can do for The Comeback Show is leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast app. It genuinely makes a difference.

Recorded and edited in Descript. If you are thinking about starting your own podcast, my affiliate link is here.

About This Episode

You have read the attachment books. You can name your style at a dinner party. You can spot anxious-avoidant dynamics in your friends, your colleagues, your last three relationships. And you are still living the pattern. If that sounds familiar, this episode was made for you.

Miriam Brait is a licensed psychologist in Romania and an attachment-focused, trauma-informed coach who works with high-functioning women all over the world. She writes the Substack Past the Past, where she explores attachment, complex trauma, and the long arc of relational healing at the intersection of psychology, neuroscience, and lived experience. Her practice is for the woman who looks fine, sounds fine, and is exhausted from holding it all together.

Miriam is 31. Jenn is 52. They live an ocean apart. And what they discovered in this conversation is that the gap between them is exactly the point. The high-functioning trap, the way attachment quietly wires who we end up attracted to, the slow erosion of self-trust we mistake for destiny: these patterns do not care about generation. They show up in a young psychologist in Bucharest and in a midlife reinvention coach who walked away from a 30-year career nine months ago. And the work to get free from them looks remarkably similar, no matter where you are in the timeline.

What You’ll Hear

Why we’ve turned ourselves into "human doings" instead of human beings, and how even our free time has become a performance

The clinical difference between conditional and unconditional self-worth, and why high-achieving women keep mistaking one for the other

Why leaving a job you are good at is so much harder than leaving one you are bad at, and what actually makes the difference between the woman who walks away and the woman who keeps saying "just one more year"

The one insight about attachment that breaks most listeners open: it doesn’t just shape how you behave inside a relationship, it shapes who you’re attracted to in the first place

Why women keep calling the same painful pattern "destiny," and what it actually takes to see the pattern instead of living inside it

How midlife transitions (divorce, empty nest, career pivots) reach back and surface attachment wounds you thought were dealt with 20 years ago

The four trauma responses (fight, flight, freeze, fawn) in plain English, and the specific path out for the chronic fawner

Why the goal isn’t a perfectly safe environment, and what to build instead so you can meet life when it isn’t safe

When to work with a therapist or psychologist versus a coach, and the single question that helps you figure out which you actually need

Key Takeaway

I think it’s far more powerful to allow people to love you as you are instead of fighting for the love of people who don’t love you as you are.

— Miriam Brait

Timestamps

00:00 Across Generations Intro

00:53 Meet Miriam Brait

02:00 Miriam’s Breakthrough Story

04:41 Healing Beyond Quick Fixes

06:08 Therapy vs Coaching

09:42 High Functioning Trap

13:28 Productivity as Self Worth

19:08 Why It’s Hard to Quit

26:16 Attachment Theory Basics

31:00 Patterns That Feel Like Destiny

35:00 Can Attachment Change

37:53 Transitions and Old Wounds

40:29 Fight Flight Freeze Fawn

44:58 Escaping the Fawn Response

46:49 Building Inner Safety

48:49 Find Miriam and Next Steps

51:44 One Message to Remember

53:39 Final Wrap and Goodbye

Connect with Miriam Brait

Substack: pasthepast.com

Free 15-minute coaching call: Book here

Threads: @gettingpastyourpast

Email: [email protected]

Connect with Jenn Fast

The Self-Trust Reset Challenge: Join the free challenge — if this episode landed for you, this is your next step. A short, guided reset designed to help you start trusting yourself again.

Newsletter: The Comeback Letter on Substack

Instagram: @itsjennfast

Email: [email protected]

If this conversation resonated, subscribe to The Comeback Show wherever you listen. If you know someone who needs to hear it, send it her way. And if you have a minute, a five-star review helps other women in midlife find their way to this show. Thank you for being here.

About This Episode

What if the thing keeping you stuck in the second half of your life is not your circumstances, your hormones, or your effort, but the fact that you have not actually let yourself stop?

Two women walked away from corporate careers within a few years of each other. Amanda Ingram quit her television industry job after her second daughter and pushed straight into building something new, until she burned out so completely she had to stop everything. Jenn Fast was told by her cardiologist that her job was incompatible with her health, walked out five days later, and used the three months that followed as a runway her husband insisted she take. Different routes. Same destination. Same hard earned conclusion about what actually moves a high achieving woman forward when the old strategies stop working.

This conversation is for the woman who has tried harder, slept more, drawn the boundaries, and is still asking the quiet question, who am I underneath all of this. Amanda and Jenn unpack the difference between survival mode and soul exhaustion, why slowing down is the counterintuitive shortcut every high achiever resists, and why self trust sits at the end of both of their coaching frameworks, not the beginning.

What You'll Hear

Why survival mode and soul exhaustion look the same from the outside and need completely different responses

How chronic stress quietly breaks your executive function and why that is not a character flaw

The reason slowing down feels intrinsically wrong for the eldest daughter, overachiever, people pleaser audience

What your inner voice actually sounds like when you finally stop drowning it out

How inner child work, play, and joy belong inside reinvention, not in a separate self help bucket

Why self trust is the final piece of both Amanda's and Jenn's coaching frameworks

A "yes, and" reframe for ADHD, anxiety, and the neurodivergent brain that changes how you relate to yourself

The small evidence that lets you know self trust is coming back online

Key Takeaway

Your wisdom is always there. Your light is there. But it gets buried underneath all the other voices, under the beliefs of others. And when we are pushing or spinning or looking or achieving or chasing, you cannot hear that quiet voice within you. But when we start to slow down a little bit, all of a sudden that voice within us, we can start to hear it.

— Amanda Ingram

Timestamps

00:00 — Cold open and welcome

01:20 — Meet Amanda Ingram, Self Discovery Coach

02:20 — Amanda's story, the corporate buyout, motherhood, and the decision to leave

04:20 — Quitting with no plan, bravery, survival, or the only door

05:30 — How burnout announced itself

06:30 — Sitting outside, poetry coming through, hearing herself again

07:30 — Jenn's story, the cardiologist, and the runway her husband insisted on

09:30 — Would Amanda have rested if she had been given permission?

10:30 — Survival mode versus soul exhaustion, defined

12:30 — What chronic stress does to your executive function

13:30 — The "you weren't broken in the first place" reframe

15:30 — Why slowing down is the shortcut (and feels intrinsically wrong)

17:30 — What your inner voice actually sounds like

19:00 — Three months of rest, what the runway looked like

20:30 — Inner child, play, and joy as part of slowing down

23:30 — What slowing down is NOT

25:00 — Self trust as the final piece of both frameworks

27:30 — Outsourcing decisions and the first move to stop

30:00 — ADHD, anxiety, and the "yes, and" reframe

32:00 — Jenn's late diagnosis at 52, relief and grief

33:00 — What self trust feels like coming back online

34:30 — Spark Sessions explained

36:30 — One message for every woman listening

37:30 — Outro and CTAs

Connect with Amanda Ingram

Find Your Spark Coaching on Instagram

Find Your Spark Coaching on Threads

Book a Spark Session

Connect with Jenn Fast

Reinvention with Jenn Fast

Free Executive Function Self Assessment

Executive Function Unlocked Waitlist

Instagram: @itsjennfast

Email: [email protected]

If this episode resonated, please follow The Comeback Show on your favorite podcast platform, leave a five star review, and share this episode with a woman in your life who is rebuilding hers. Reviews are the most powerful way to help other women find this show.

About This Episode

What does reinvention look like when life has not gone in a straight line? When the path between who you were and who you are now includes a chapter you barely survived? In this week's episode, Jenn sits down with Jacob Allen, the owner of Salty Starfish Travel and a high school classmate she had not spoken to in 35 years.

Jacob spent 20 years battling addiction. He did six rehabs, lost everything, and eventually lost his freedom. That last loss was the turning point. After getting sober, he became a drug and alcohol counselor, worked on a mobile outreach team that met people in active addiction wherever they were, and spent years inside elementary and high schools supporting kids who were starting to walk down the same road he had walked. Then travel found him again. In his late 40s, he started Salty Starfish Travel, the luxury travel agency he runs today on top of a day job and a real estate business.

This conversation is for anyone wondering if it is too late to build something real, anyone watching someone they love come back from a hard chapter, and anyone who has been quietly longing for a trip that actually changes something inside them.

What You Will Hear

Why the most powerful turning point in Jacob's recovery was not what he expected, and what finally made the difference after six rehabs

How counseling kids in elementary and high schools changed the way he sees what people in active addiction need from the rest of us

The trip that reignited his passion for travel and the specific moment on a Bahamian beach when Salty Starfish Travel was born

What luxury travel actually means (hint: it has very little to do with price) and how to know whether a trip will match your vibe

The most expensive mistake Jacob sees travelers make when they try to book their own trips, and what AI can and cannot replace when planning

Where to send a woman in her 50s who has never traveled solo, plus what midlife women misunderstand about a destination before they arrive

What a 52-year-old man sees in the women around him navigating midlife reinvention that they cannot see in themselves

Why reconnection with people who knew an earlier version of you might be one of the most overlooked tools in your second act

Key Takeaway

You have got to step outside of your comfort zone. You have got to try new things. You have got to meet new people. If you are feeling invisible, nothing changes if nothing changes.

— Jacob Allen

Timestamps

00:00 — You Are Not Too Late

00:45 — Meet Jacob Allen

02:15 — Early Life and the Detour

04:21 — What He Thought His Life Would Look Like at 52

05:10 — Inside 20 Years of Addiction

06:00 — The Turning Point: Losing His Freedom

08:11 — Giving Back as a Counselor

10:49 — The Two Kids Who Changed Him

13:45 — Ending the Stigma Around Addiction

15:43 — When Travel Started Changing Him

16:47 — Starting Salty Starfish on a Bahamian Beach

17:49 — Why Travel Heals

20:05 — Reinvention Through Travel

21:06 — Building the Agency From Scratch

24:44 — What Luxury Travel Really Means

26:05 — The Real Workweek (No Highlight Reel)

27:57 — Stress, Anxiety, and Self-Care in Midlife Entrepreneurship

31:05 — AI vs Travel Agents: Where Each One Wins

33:26 — Matching the Trip to Your Vibe

34:04 — The Most Costly Booking Mistake

38:40 — Best Trips for Solo Women in Their 50s

40:47 — Resetting Your Expectations When You Travel Abroad

44:09 — How to Choose a Trip for the Version of You That Is Becoming

45:41 — A Man’s View on Supporting Midlife Women

49:15 — Reconnection and the Final Takeaway

Connect with Jacob Allen

Salty Starfish Travel: saltystarfishtravel.com

2027 Reflections of Italy Tour: View trip details

Instagram: @salty_starfish_travel

Facebook: Salty Starfish Travel

Email Jacob: [email protected]

Connect with Jenn Fast

Instagram: @itsjennfast

Subscribe to The Comeback Letter on Substack: thecomebackletter.substack.com

Email Jenn: [email protected]

Thinking about launching your own podcast? Get the Launch Your Signature Podcast Kit — the playbook, audio training, episode framework, AI prompts, and 7-day kickoff course. Eight resources valued at over $700, available now for a fraction of that.

If this episode spoke to you, please subscribe to The Comeback Show wherever you listen, share it with a friend who needs to hear that they are not too late, and leave a 5-star review. That is how more women in midlife find this show.

About This Episode

There is a particular kind of professional grief that does not get named enough. The version where you survive a layoff, take the severance, take the deep breath, try the next contract, and discover the next contract is also the wrong fit. Your nervous system already knows. You just have not said the thing out loud yet.

Bri Broadwater knows that grief intimately. She was laid off twice in 18 months, once from Salesforce, once from a short tech contract that was supposed to last a year and ended after a few months. Instead of going back for round three, she found a ten thousand dollar coffee stand for sale on Craigslist, bought it without a loan using savings, sold stock, and wedding gift money, and named it Noli, short for nolite timere, Latin for "have no fear." Today she runs Noli Coffee solo in Bothell, Washington, five days a week, and she builds it in public on TikTok under the mantra "allergic to flop."

This is not the polished founder version of the story. This is the version where Bri talks honestly about the financial gap between profitable and her old six figure salary, the partner who is carrying more than either of them planned, and what it means to run a business in a body that does not always cooperate. It is also the version where two women, twenty years apart in age, compare notes on what it actually takes to start over.

What You'll Hear

Why the second layoff is often the one that lets you stop pretending you want to go back

How Bri funded an entire business without taking out a single loan, and exactly which buckets the money came from

The honest gap between "my business is profitable" and "I am back to my old corporate salary," and what living in that gap costs your relationship

Why building in public on TikTok is a tightrope, not a strategy, and how Bri decides what to share

What it actually looks like to run a business as a woman with a disability, and the workplace policies Bri wants to build because of it

Why your grandmother could not get a credit card and why that history matters for the leap you are considering now

The "do one hard thing every year" framework that took Bri from stand-up comedy to a coffee stand

The exact piece of advice Bri would tell herself one year ago (it has nothing to do with marketing)

Key Takeaway

Starting over does not mean you failed. It means you are finally trusting yourself in the way that you have always needed to. Starting over is not a failure. It is just a redirection.

— Bri Broadwater

Timestamps

00:00 — Layoff to Coffee Stand

00:58 — Meet Noli Coffee

02:37 — A Day Running Solo

04:46 — Two Layoffs in Tech

08:23 — Saving From Destitution

11:40 — Why Coffee Why Now

13:26 — Starting a Podcast

18:35 — Drive Through Decisions

21:00 — Funding and Location Risks

24:34 — Support and Money Strain

29:27 — Advice Without a Safety Net

30:36 — Extending Your Runway

31:45 — Highlight Reels vs Reality

32:19 — Starting Out in Your 30s

35:08 — Women's Progress and Choice

37:58 — Age Advantages and Comparison

41:20 — Allergic to Flop Strategy

42:47 — Building in Public Boundaries

44:50 — Entrepreneurship with Disability

48:48 — Romance Goblin and Growth

51:45 — Find Noli Coffee

53:39 — Lessons Learned and Mentors

55:32 — Networking and AI Systems

59:12 — Starting Over Message

59:59 — Final Thanks and Wrap

Connect with Bri Broadwater

Noli Coffee on Instagram

Noli Coffee on TikTok

Visit Noli Coffee: 10610 Woodinville Dr, Bothell, WA 98011

Hours: Tues to Fri 6:30 AM to 2 PM, Sat 8 AM to 1 PM

Connect with Jenn Fast

Follow Jenn on Instagram

Email: [email protected]

Thinking about starting your own podcast? Grab my Start Strong Podcast Launch Mini-Course (free).

I record and edit every episode of The Comeback Show on Descript. It is the tool that made this possible.

If this conversation made you feel less alone in the middle of your own leap, share it with one woman in your life who needs to hear that starting over is survivable. And if you have not yet, subscribe and leave a five star review. That small act helps the next woman find this show.

About This Episode

You know how to grind. You have probably been doing it for years, checking boxes, meeting deadlines, running on obligation and calling it ambition. But somewhere in the middle of all that output, the person doing all of it quietly stopped being okay. If that sounds familiar, this episode was made for you.

Natalie Beard is the founder of Soul Wealth Rebirth, the voice behind 83 consecutive issues of Soul Wealth Chronicles on Substack, and the host of Becoming Natalie: The Soul Wealth Podcast. She spent more than 20 years leading teams in medical laboratory medicine, walking into broken departments, turning chaos into efficiency, earning a reputation as the person you call when everything falls apart. She was also, for a long time, the last person on that list to take care of herself.

A year ago, she was my very first podcast guest. Today she is back with an update that is honest, specific, and full of the kind of insight that only comes from actually living through something. This is not a motivational highlight reel. It is a real look at what changes when you stop chasing a version of success that was never really yours.

What You'll Hear

Why 83 consecutive newsletters without a missed week matters more than going viral, and what that kind of consistency actually looks like when you are also leading a full-time team

The "stabilizer" identity: what Natalie finally recognized about herself at 50, and why naming your pattern can change your entire career direction

What "soft success" actually looks like in practice, and why it might just be pajamas, your dogs in your lap, and giving yourself permission to stop

The daily pulse check Natalie uses to stay connected to herself, and how it is different from the self-care content we are all exhausted by

Why she started writing directly to men in her perimenopause newsletter, and what that tells us about who is really paying attention

What happened when Natalie's brain finally went quiet for the first time, and why silence felt stranger than all the chaos that came before it

The Martin Luther King quote Natalie carries everywhere: "You don't have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step."

Key Takeaway

"I stabilized everybody else. What about Natalie? I did not think about stabilizing me. And so that is when I started stabilizing myself, and I am so happy I did that."

— Natalie Beard, Founder of Soul Wealth Rebirth

Timestamps

00:00 — Reinvention Reunion

00:59 — Meet Natalie Beard

02:15 — The Spark That Started It

03:59 — Jenn's Year of Change

04:57 — Natalie Builds Her Platform

09:01 — Owning Your Voice

10:34 — Worldwide Resonance

11:45 — The Stabilizer Identity

15:34 — Soft Success Over Hustle

17:50 — Breaking the Hustle Loop

19:52 — Going Inward Daily

22:30 — Self-Care and Guilt

23:13 — Embracing Soft Success

24:39 — Small Joys Daily

25:41 — Reinvention Through Slowing

28:35 — Advice to Past Self

30:16 — Menopause Talk for Men

33:32 — Men in Midlife Too

35:07 — Finding Your People

38:08 — No Competition Space

40:14 — Functional Sisterhood

43:06 — First Step in Faith

44:55 — Closing and Resources

Connect with Natalie Beard

Website + Substack: soulwealthrebirth.com

Podcast: Becoming Natalie: The Soul Wealth Podcast on Apple Podcasts

Email: [email protected]

Connect with Jenn Fast

Start Strong: 7-Day Podcast Kickstart Email Mini-Course: https://reinventionwithjennfast.com/7-day-podcast-kickoff-course-optin

Newsletter: The Comeback Letter on Substack

Instagram: @itsjennfast

If this conversation resonated, subscribe to The Comeback Show wherever you listen. If you know someone who needs to hear it, send it their way. And if you have a minute, a five-star review helps other women in midlife find their way to this show. Thank you for being here.

About This Episode

Have you ever poured your professional energy into creating something for others that you quietly didn't have yourself? Maybe it was flexibility. Maybe it was confidence. For Jenn Fast, for the last three years of her 30-year corporate career, that word was belonging.

She was the architect of belonging programs, the person responsible for making sure hundreds of colleagues felt seen, valued, and included. She believed in the work. By most measures, she was good at it. And she carried, underneath all of it, a persistent, low-grade sense of not quite fitting. She could articulate belonging in a presentation. She just couldn't seem to find it in the hallway.

In this solo episode, Jenn takes the listener through the full arc: the structural misalignments that compounded over years, the cardiologist who asked whether her job was compatible with her health, the ADHD diagnosis that arrived four months after she left, and the lunch that quietly ended a 30-year career. She also shares what she found on the other side — a kind of belonging she describes as restful, one that doesn't require management or translation. This conversation is for anyone who has been performing belonging somewhere while starving for the real thing.

What You'll Hear

Why doing deeply meaningful work for others doesn't protect you from being invisible to the system that work lives in

What the difference actually feels like between the belonging you perform and the belonging you recognize — in your body, before your mind catches up

How chronic stress from a misaligned career shows up as measurable physical damage, not just burnout

The moment a cardiologist's words reframed the whole question: not “how do I manage my stress better” but “is my job compatible with my health”

Why knowing about ADHD sooner may not have changed anything — and what that says about culture versus diagnosis

The quiet lunch that shifted everything — and what real clarity feels like when it finally arrives

Why real belonging requires intentionality after you leave a structure, and what it looked like to build it from scratch

The two questions that help you notice the gap between where you feel most like yourself and where you spend most of your time

Key Takeaway

“What if the exhaustion isn’t about the workload? What if it’s about the distance between who you are and where you’re being asked to show up?”

— Jenn Fast

Timestamps

00:00 — Belonging Irony

03:22 — The Gap Question

03:57 — Stress, Values, and Health

05:59 — ADHD and Fit

07:33 — The Lunch Moment

09:16 — Building New Community

10:52 — Performed vs. Real Belonging

12:51 — Two Questions Closing

14:02 — Reach Out and Share

Connect with Jenn Fast

Jenn mentions ADHD in this episode — and if any of that resonated with you, she has a free Executive Function Self-Assessment that can help you understand how your brain is actually wired. It's free, takes a few minutes, and might give you some real clarity.

📱 Instagram: @itsjennfast

📧 Email: [email protected]

💌 Newsletter: Subscribe to The Comeback Letter on Substack

If this episode landed for you, please share it with someone who might need it — a friend in the middle of a hard chapter, or a colleague who’s been saying she’s fine for a little too long. And if you haven’t yet, subscribe and leave a review.

Why Your ADHD Teen Can't Start Homework (It's Not What You Think)

About This Episode

If you've ever watched your teen sit in front of an open assignment and do absolutely nothing — and felt yourself cycling through frustration, guilt, and confusion — this episode is for you. Because what looks like avoidance, defiance, or not caring is very often something else entirely: a skill gap. And skill gaps can be taught. That's a fundamentally different conversation than the one most families are having at 7pm over a backpack full of missing assignments.

Carla See is an executive function coach for teens ages 12 and up, and a former special education educator with more than two decades in the field. What makes her work different isn't just the experience — it's that she's lived this from the inside. Her daughter was diagnosed with ADHD with anxiety, and Carla found herself sitting at that same homework table, watching the same tension build, asking herself the same questions she'd heard from parents for years. That experience changed everything about how she does this work.

In this episode, Jenn shares her own family's journey through ADHD and autism diagnoses — and the strange combination of grief and relief that came with finally having language for decades of struggles she'd quietly blamed herself for. Together, Jenn and Carla talk about what executive function actually is, why capable teens get stuck, what parents do that unintentionally makes it worse, and what a different approach looks like — one that builds real skills while protecting the parent-child relationship.

What You'll Hear

Why a teen who "understands the material" can still be completely unable to start — and what's actually happening in their brain when they freeze

The difference between a skill gap and a choice not to try (and why it matters more than you think)

How becoming your teen's reminder system quietly damages your relationship — and what to step into instead

Why Carla asks parents to stop asking about homework during her program, and the "living document" that makes stepping back feel safe instead of scary

The one-phrase technique — say it before your teen even starts a task — that builds momentum where reminders never could

What resilience actually looks like for exhausted families (hint: it's not positivity, it's persistence)

The small, early signs that coaching is working — before grades change, before everything feels fixed

What Jenn's own recognition moment felt like, and why so many midlife women are carrying silent self-blame that finally has a name

Key Takeaway

"Homework will pass. Assignments will pass. Grades will pass. But what you really want to nourish and take care of is the relationship you have with your son or with your daughter."

— Carla See

Timestamps

00:00 — When Diagnosis Mirrors You

01:10 — Jenn's Family Wake Up

02:02 — Meet Carla See

03:37 — From Educator to Mom

05:44 — Why Go Solo Online

08:37 — The Homework Table Click

10:47 — Executive Function Explained

13:47 — Skill Gap or Defiance

15:07 — Grief, Relief, Recognition

17:58 — Stop Policing Homework

20:29 — When Parents Over-Function

22:27 — Stepping Back With Structure

24:45 — Why She Says "Class"

26:27 — Building Teen Trust

27:14 — Praise Effort Fast

28:59 — Trust Fuels Learning

29:20 — Resilience With Compassion

32:01 — Personal Resilience Story

35:30 — You Are Not Failing

36:54 — When to Get Help

37:58 — Signs Support Works

39:39 — Adult Self Discovery

42:34 — What Families Keep

44:34 — Small Moments Matter

47:24 — Closing Resources

Connect with Carla See

Website — ADHD Teen Executive Function Coach

Linktree — coaching program, resources, and all links

Connect with Jenn Fast

If anything in this episode made you wonder about your own executive function, Jenn has a free self-assessment for adults — a gentle starting place for naming what you've been living with:

→ Free Adult EF Self-Assessment

Jenn is also writing a book called Executive Function Unlocked, with a course to accompany it. Join the waitlist to hear about it first:

→ Executive Function Unlocked Waitlist

Instagram: @itsjennfastEmail: [email protected]

If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, share it with a parent who needs to hear it, and consider leaving a five-star review — it helps more families find the show.