The Midlife Makeover Show | Women Over 40, Menopause Support, Divorce Recovery, Empty Nest Advice, Aging Gracefully, Finding Purpose

What do you do when the worst week of your life hands you your next chapter?

On this episode of The Midlife Makeover Show, Wendy Valentine welcomes back bestselling author — and her own book coach! — Amy B. Scher for a conversation about grief, healing, and hope. In 2011, Amy lost her dad and, five days later, her 22-year-old cousin to murder. Fifteen years on, that grief became her debut novel, The Unexpected Afterlife of Salon Rose: equal parts murder mystery, darkly funny coming-of-age story, and love letter to the people we’ve lost.

Amy and Wendy dig into why moving on doesn’t mean leaving our loved ones behind, how grief pushes us to ask the questions we avoid when life is running smoothly, the signs that our people are still with us, and why the very worst weeks of our lives can quietly line us up for what’s meant for us next.

✨ What You’ll Learn

•     Why moving on from grief means moving forward WITH meaning — not leaving your loved ones behind

•     How grief pushes you to ask the questions you never ask when everything’s going smoothly

•     Why a novel can heal in ways self-help can’t — “doing the work without doing the work”

•     What real resilience means: unlike a palm tree, YOU choose what you bounce back to

•     How our loved ones keep showing up — signs, synchronicities, and staying connected after loss

💎 A big thank-you to our sponsor, Unvault — find out what your unworn jewelry is really worth in about 60 seconds. Free, no-obligation valuations backed by AI and real gemologists at unvault.co.

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salonrosebook.com  

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What happens when you plan perfectly for retirement… and still end up feeling completely lost?

In this episode of The Midlife Makeover Show, Wendy Valentine sits down with George Jerjian — retirement mindset mentor, Emmy recipient, and award-winning author of 12 books — to talk about the part of retirement money can’t organize: your identity.

At 52, George was given six months to live. The diagnosis was wrong, but instead of life snapping back to normal, he drifted for nine years — until a 30-day silent retreat changed everything and he chose to unretire on his own terms. Now he guides people through what he calls the Identity Renaissance, using the DARE Method® he built from working with more than 21,000 retirees.

If you’re staring down the “what’s next?” question feeling stuck, restless, or invisible, this conversation is your reminder: your best chapter isn’t behind you — it’s the one you design next.

✨ What You’ll Learn

•     Why even the best-planned retirements can leave you feeling stuck, restless, and invisible — and the part money can’t organize

•     What the Identity Renaissance is — and how to navigate the “liminal space” between your old title and your new self

•     Why asking “Who do I want to be?” unlocks “What do I want to do?” in your second act

•     How George’s DARE Method® moves you from drifting to a purposeful, self-designed next chapter

•     Why your mindset needs a “software update” for the 20–30 bonus years ahead

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Author Spotlight: Preferment™ by Anne van Leynseele — the research-backed alternative to retirement, trading "what now?" for a mission worth waking up for (from a five-time career reinventor and award-winning chocolate farmer!). Grab it on Amazon and https://www.rarifiedlife.com

What would it take for you to give up YOUR ghost?

In this episode of The Midlife Makeover Show, Wendy Valentine sits down with Samantha Rose — Emmy award-winning television writer and New York Times bestselling ghostwriter of nearly twenty books — to talk about what happens when the woman behind everyone else’s stories finally tells her own.

After losing her mother to suicide in 2020, Samantha began writing to process her grief… and discovered she had been living as a ghost in her own life. That writing became Giving Up the Ghost: A Daughter’s Memoir — winner of Best Memoir at the San Francisco Book Festival — and the first book ever published under her own name. Together, Wendy and Samantha explore grief, healing, finding your voice in midlife, and why it’s never too late to stop playing small and finally be seen.

If you’ve ever felt invisible in your own life, this conversation is your permission slip.

✨ What You’ll Learn

•     Why so many women become the “ghostwriter” of their own lives — and how to stop

•     What “giving up the ghost” really means — and how to give up yours

•     How writing (or any creative outlet) helps grief move through your body

•     Why unprocessed grief waits for you — and how to finally give it a voice

•     How to step out of the shadows and be seen — even as an introvert

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Author Spotlight: Preferment™ by Anne van Leynseele — the research-backed alternative to retirement, trading "what now?" for a mission worth waking up for (from a five-time career reinventor and award-winning chocolate farmer!). Grab it on Amazon and https://www.rarifiedlife.com

Have you ever looked back at a relationship and wondered, how did I lose myself like that?

In this powerful episode, Wendy sits down with Jessica Anne Pressler — a Columbia-trained psychotherapist, hospice grief counselor, and author of the new psychological suspense novel Traitor Within — to talk about self-abandonment, trauma bonding, and the hidden ways we disappear inside our relationships.

With four decades of clinical experience (and her own hard-won healing), Jessica explains what a trauma bond really is, why intelligent, empathetic women stay, and how the “traitor within” — the protective part born in childhood — keeps us people-pleasing and self-abandoning for decades. Most of all, she offers hope: the moment you stop abandoning yourself to keep everyone else comfortable is the moment healing begins.

If you’ve ever made excuses for someone, loved them for their potential, or struggled to walk away — this conversation will help you reconnect with your voice, your worth, and yourself.

✨ What You’ll Learn

•      What a trauma bond actually is — and why leaving can feel physically impossible

•      The “traitor within”: the childhood-born protective part that keeps us self-abandoning as adults

•      Why smart, empathetic women stay — and why understanding someone is never a reason to accept abuse

•      How to tell narcissistic traits from the clinical disorder — without the social-media buzzwords

•      The first steps to boundaries, going no-contact, and coming home to yourself

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📚 Author Spotlight: The Balance Cure: The TCM Way to Lasting Weight Loss by Dr. Angela Zeng — an Amazon #1 bestseller blending the ancient wisdom of Chinese medicine with modern science to help you discover your unique body pattern, understand why you gain weight, and navigate GLP-1s with confidence.

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What if you could completely transform your marriage — without your husband changing a single thing?

In this episode of The Midlife Makeover Show, Wendy Valentine sits down with Alicia Johnson, certified Laura Doyle relationship coach and founder of Crown of Honey, who went from constant fighting, controlling everything, and believing she’d married the wrong guy… to rebuilding her marriage from the inside out.

Alicia shares the six intimacy skills that changed everything — starting with self-care (the real kind), the daily gratitude practice that dissolved years of resentment, and what happened when she finally let go of control and let her husband step up. She also opens up about feminine energy, the fear hiding underneath our need to control, and why your joy is your responsibility — and your power.

If you’re exhausted, stuck, or secretly miserable in your marriage but divorce isn’t what you want, this conversation is your permission slip to stop waiting for him to change.

✨ What You’ll Learn

•     Why the woman who shifts first changes the whole atmosphere of her home — no couples therapy required

•     The six intimacy skills — and why real self-care (not just pedicures) is the foundation of all of them

•     How a daily gratitude practice “hijacks your brain” and dissolves resentment — because the two can’t coexist

•     How to stop complaining and start expressing your desires femininely — so he finally knows how to make you happy

•     What’s really hiding underneath control (hint: it’s fear) — and how to let it go without losing yourself

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Author Spotlight: Preferment by Anne van Leynseele — the research-backed alternative to retirement, trading "what now?" for a mission worth waking up for (from a five-time career reinventor and award-winning chocolate farmer!). Grab it on Amazon.

Is your bank account stuck in fight-or-flight?

In this episode of The Midlife Makeover Show, Wendy Valentine sits down with money mindset expert Tiffany Carter — business mentor and host of ProjectME with Tiffany Carter, a Top 5 money and entrepreneurship podcast in 57 countries. Tiffany opens up about going from TV news broadcaster to multimillionaire entrepreneur, losing her first million to a smooth-talking “finance guy,” and the wake-up call that sent her on a mission to heal the trauma driving her money story.

You’ll learn how fight, flight, freeze, and fawn show up in the way you earn, spend, and sell — why those patterns were wired in long before your first paycheck — and how to start rewiring them with radical responsibility and zero shame.

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📕 Today's Author Spotlight: She Who Remembers by Megan Dalla-Camina Grab your copy

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What if the hardest parts of your life finally made sense?

Wendy Valentine sits down with certified ADHD coach Andrea Morton, who was diagnosed with combined-type ADHD at 48 — after a lifetime of masking, over-functioning, and secretly Googling “who takes care of moms?” at 2 a.m. Andrea breaks down what ADHD really is (spoiler: inconsistent attention, not a lack of it), why so many women slip through the cracks until midlife, and how plummeting estrogen in menopause can unmask symptoms you’ve managed for decades.

She shares the tools that actually help — exercise, the physiological sigh, modeling self-regulation for your kids — plus the story behind her new guided journal, The Late Starter Kit for Late-Diagnosed ADHD Moms, illustrated by her daughter. If you’ve ever called yourself lazy, flaky, or “too much,” this conversation will feel like one great big exhale.

✨ What You’ll Learn

•     What ADHD actually is — and why “inconsistent attention” beats “attention deficit”

•     How ADHD shows up differently in adult women (hello, 2 a.m. rumination)

•     Why menopause and dropping estrogen can unmask a lifetime of hidden ADHD

•     In-the-moment tools: the physiological sigh, exercise, and modeling self-regulation for your kids

•     How to trade shame and masking for self-knowledge, self-compassion, and self-love

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📚 Author Spotlight: The Unabridged Life of Missy Kinkaid by

Kirsten Pursell — a witty, fiercely uplifting novel about starting over and owning your story (Book 2 of the Scarlet's Harlots Trilogy — each reads as a standalone!).

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What if the story you’ve been hiding is actually your greatest asset?

In this episode of The Midlife Makeover Show, Wendy Valentine sits down with Elizabeth Brett — former NBC television reporter turned storytelling authority and creator of Story Alchemy™ — to explore how owning your story can transform your confidence, your connections, and your entire next chapter.

Elizabeth shares the near-death experience in the ocean that rewrote the course of her life, why women have been the story keepers for thousands of years, and how to uncover the “Million Dollar Story” hiding in your most ordinary moments. You’ll also learn her Sovereignty Filter for knowing which stories are ready to share, and the question that started it all: who were you before the world told you who to be?

If you’ve ever thought your story isn’t “special enough,” consider this conversation your permission slip to start telling it.

What You’ll Learn

•     Why your personal story — even the messy parts — is your greatest asset for connection and authority

•     How to find your “Million Dollar Story” in the small, ordinary moments of your life

•     The Sovereignty Filter: how to know when a story is ready (and in integrity) to share

•     Why storytelling is in women’s DNA — and how to reclaim your voice as a natural storyteller

•     How stories work on the brain — people remember stories about 60% more than facts

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What if the success you’ve worked so hard for could actually feel as good as it looks?

In this episode of The Midlife Makeover Show, Wendy Valentine sits down with Lacey Newman — founder, coach, and keynote speaker who’s helped thousands of high-performing women build lives and businesses that are truly their own. Lacey built and scaled a real estate team to nearly a billion dollars in sales, hosted an Emmy-nominated TV show, and grew her income to seven figures — then realized she was running a wildly successful but deeply misaligned life.

She shares the moment she hit the highest high and felt nothing, how boundaries became her most strategic business tool, and why she walked away from the top of her industry to reinvent everything. Whether you’re navigating burnout, a career pivot, or a new season of life, this conversation is your permission slip to redefine success on your own terms — because it’s never too late to build a life that actually fits who you are now.

✨ What You’ll Learn

• Why hitting every goal can still leave you feeling empty — and what that emptiness is actually trying to tell you

• How to go from operator to CEO — and stop running your business (and your life) in reactive mode

• Why boundaries are your most strategic tool — and how they actually make people respect you MORE

• How to tell the difference between real burnout and a quiet calling toward something new

• Why midlife is the perfect time to redefine success — and rebuild your work from clarity instead of hustle

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What if every “no” you’ve ever gotten was actually life quietly rerouting you toward something better?

In this episode of The Midlife Makeover Show, Wendy Valentine sits down with Katelyn Rhoades — Forbes-featured social media strategist, founder of Enfluence Marketing Studio, and host of the top-ranked Call Her Creator podcast.

Katelyn shares how she went from selling her own clothes for grocery money to building a seven-figure brand, growing an audience of 250,000+ from scratch, and turning a $19 digital product into a six-figure income stream. She opens up about growing up feeling like a burden, healing the people pleaser inside, taking messy action, and why rejection is just redirection.

Whether you’re rebuilding after divorce, an empty nest, or a career change, this conversation is your permission slip to get visible, bet on yourself, and create a life you’re obsessed with — because it is never too late to start over.

✨ What You’ll Learn

• Why rejection is just redirection — and how to stop overpersonalizing every “no”
• How to take messy action when you’re scared, broke, or still waiting to feel “ready”
• The visibility shift that turns being seen into real opportunities (and real revenue)
• How to rediscover your purpose by going back to what you loved as a kid
• Why midlife is the BEST time to start over — more wisdom, more resources, zero patience for other people’s timelines

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