Turning 30 Podcast

If you've been doing all the inner work- the journaling, the therapy, the mindset shifts- and still feel like you're spinning in the same old patterns, this episode is for you.

It's all about how sometimes the missing piece is changing your environment. So much can happen and shift when you switch up where you are and who you surround yourself with.

I'm joined by my incredibly wise friend Jelena, who has been on the podcast so many times we've lost count, and honestly, our conversations never get old. We recently reunited in Thailand and I knew after our time together it was time to record another episode.

The topic we're diving into today is one that I think is genuinely underrated in the personal development world: your environment.

We talk a lot about doing the internal work, but what happens when that work isn't landing because everything around you is still keeping you stuck?

Jelena spent 15 years in corporate banking in London before her life completely turned upside down at the end of her twenties. Her thirties have been a radical journey of self-discovery, moving countries, changing her entire social world, and stepping into her calling as a somatic coach and breathwork facilitator. We met on a trip to Costa Rica when both of us were in moments of real transition — and that trip itself is actually a perfect example of what this episode is all about.

In this episode we cover:

• Why doing the inner work alone isn't always enough — and what the missing piece so often is
• Jelena's fish-in-dirty-water analogy that will genuinely change how you think about personal growth
• The nervous system piece: why your body keeps dragging you back to old patterns even when your mind knows better
• How both of us have used new environments as a catalyst for massive life change
• Why retreats are such a powerful incubator — and what makes a transformational coaching retreat different from a regular wellness trip
• The magic of being in a room with women who are walking the same path as you
• Jelena's experience co-hosting the Align Retreat with me in 2023 — and why the friendships formed there are still going strong
• Following your breadcrumbs and trusting the nudges that lead you somewhere new
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✨ Ready to change your environment? The Turning Retreat is your invitation.

Everything we talked about in this episode: the power of new environments, the incubator effect of retreats, the transformation that happens when you're surrounded by women doing this work , that is exactly what I've designed the Turning Retreat to be.

October 4–10, 2026 | Koh Samui, Thailand

A week inside one of the most stunning wellness resorts on the island, nestled in the jungle and minutes from where I actually live. We're going to go deep - somatic work, a transformational coaching program written by me, a cacao ceremony, a floating sound bath, and breathwork and energy healing with our incredible guest facilitator Kady Gummerson

We have a beautiful group of women already booked in, and there are still spots left.

If something in this episode is pulling you toward it, that's not an accident. It's divine timing!

For more information: see the retreat details ⁠https://www.turning30coach.com/turningretreat2026⁠

Book a retreat consult call with me: https://calendar.app.google/TZ2xSbfuqoaBDr6k7

Connect with Jelena:

Find her previous episodes linked below: including the very first one we recorded together that broke my download records.

And if you're a facilitator, spaceholder, yoga teacher, or therapist, go check out her Step Up programme and her breathwork teacher training (next in-person cohort in Ibiza, September).

https://www.andalso.space/breathworkteachertraining

Introducing my brand new free workshop, Quit Dating: How to Find Love in Your 30s by Quitting Dating. 🎥 Watch it here for free before July 2nd.

If dating apps have started to feel sticky, draining, or like they're just not working no matter how much effort you put in, this episode (and the workshop) will explain why "trying harder" is rarely the answer, and what to do instead.

In this episode:

• Why I believe dating isn't actually a numbers game — and why cookie-cutter 2026 dating advice misses the point
• The Kabbalah concept behind why effort alone doesn't bring love closer
• The real story of quitting the apps the week before my 35th birthday — and meeting my husband three months later

• An invitation to stop forcing what's depleting you and start refilling your own cup instead

☀️ Join the Summer of You challenge inside Turning — starting July 6th. Eight weeks of daily journal prompts, weekly pep talks from me, and a 24/7 community of women doing the work alongside you. You'll declare your skill to master, your experience to have, your connection to focus on, your boundary to set, and your daily habit to stick to. Doors close again July 6th.

THE TURNING RETREAT 2026: KOH SAMUI, THAILAND

If this episode resonates with you, I want you to know about something very special...

This October, I'm hosting a 7-day immersive coaching and wellness retreat for women in their 30s at Absolute Sanctuary in Koh Samui, Thailand. October 4-10.

Daily coaching, breathwork, yoga, a floating sound bath ceremony, Thai cooking, and a closing beach ceremony at sunset. All meals, accommodation, and airport transfers included.

This is the kind of portal-opening, soul-level work we talk about in this episode, but in person, surrounded by 16 incredible women.

5 spots are already filled. Early bird pricing ends soon - these are the final days to book at the special rate.

Only 11 spots remaining.

Book your spot now: https://www.turning30coach.com/turningretreat2026

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

I recorded this episode while on a solo trip in Vietnam. I was cycling through the rice paddy fields in Hoi An when it hit me: how did this moment become available to me? How did I create a life where this was even possible?

And that's what I want to talk about today. The portal of possibility, and how to open it so you can stop living the life you were taught to want and start living the life you actually desire.

What we cover:

• Why most of us are manifesting from the wrong place. We're manifesting from inside a small box of social conditioning, timelines, and expectations that were never ours to begin with.

• The portal of possibility. What it is, how I first opened it in my own life, and how you can too.

• The difference between what you want and what you've been taught to want. This is deeper than it sounds, and it's often the reason manifestation doesn't work.

• Why it doesn't need to make logical sense. Your soul didn't come here to live out the path laid out by those who came before you.

• The vessel concept from Kabbalah. When your vessel is shaped by fear and conditioning, you attract experiences that match that, not what you actually want.

• How to know what you really want. It starts with asking: when do you feel most like yourself? What lights you up? When was the last time things felt in flow?

• Following the breadcrumbs. Your future self is constantly pulling you in the direction you're meant to go. The nudges aren't random. Listen to them.

This episode is for you if...

You're in the messy middle and not sure what you want next

The path laid out for you feels boring, uninspiring, or just... not right

There are things you want but you're afraid you can't have them

You've been feeling stuck, funky, or like things aren't flowing

You're ready to make a bold decision but need a nudge

CONNECT WITH EMMA

Instagram: @turning30coach

Join the Turning Community waitlist

Book the Turning Retreat: https://www.turning30coach.com/turningretreat2026

🌴 THE TURNING RETREAT 2026 — KOH SAMUI, THAILAND

Before we dive in, I have something exciting to share. This October, I'm hosting a 7-day immersive coaching and wellness retreat for women in their 30s at Absolute Sanctuary in Koh Samui, Thailand.

From October 4-10, 16 women will gather for daily coaching workshops, breathwork, yoga, a floating sound bath ceremony, Thai cooking, and a closing beach ceremony at sunset. All meals, accommodation, and airport transfers are included.

This is not a passive holiday. It's a dedicated week to get clear, get grounded, and come home genuinely changed.

Join at a very special early bird rate (ends June 2nd). Only 16 spots.

Book your spot: https://www.turning30coach.com/turningretreat2026

This week I'm doing something a little different. I was a guest on Lucy's podcast, and we had such an honest conversation that I wanted to share it here too.

Lucy is a therapeutic coach for women who excel at everything except relationships. After nine years on the trading floor, she found herself privately spiralling over situationships, emotional breadcrumbs, and relationships that never quite became what they promised. Work was easy to master. Intimacy was not.

We talked about what it really felt like to be the single friend in our late 20s and early 30s, attending 13 weddings in one year, feeling like a spectator in other people's successes, and that hollow feeling of coming home after celebrating everyone else's milestones.

What we cover:

• The birthday hole. That existential dread that hits on milestone birthdays and what it really meant for both of us turning 30.
• Being a spectator in other people's lives. The emotional rollercoaster of genuinely being happy for your friends while privately wondering when your life would start.
• The single friend identity. How being "the single one" becomes a protective armour that actually blocks us from love.
• Desire versus availability. Why wanting a relationship so badly doesn't mean you're actually open to receiving one.
• The transition nobody talks about. What it was really like going from thriving single woman to being in a relationship and having a baby in quick succession. The grief, the identity crisis, the feeling of betraying my previous self.
• Emotional childhood versus emotional adulthood. What it means to become emotionally mature and why your 30s are often when this shift happens.
• Why single women need single friends. Just like mums are encouraged to find their "mum crew," single women deserve the same permission to build community with people walking the same path.
• Retraining your brain to see good men. How our algorithms, both on social media and in our minds, can keep us stuck in the belief that there are no good men left.

ABOUT LUCY

Since 2021, Lucy has worked with high-performing women from organisations including BlackRock, J.P. Morgan, and Citigroup. Her work blends deep lived experience with world-class training from Layla Martin and Dr. Gabor Maté.

CONNECT WITH EMMA

Instagram: @turning30coach

Join the Turning Community: https://www.turning30coach.com/turning-lp

Book the Turning Retreat: https://www.turning30coach.com/turningretreat2026

If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, rate, and share it with a friend who needs to hear it.

Have you ever wondered if love could actually find you somewhere you weren't even looking?

This week I'm joined by Lauren Josephine: dating author, relationship coach, and someone who went on over 200 dates before meeting her husband... on Reddit.

Lauren spent 10 years navigating the apps, the love bombing, the ghosting, and the heartbreak that so many of us know too well. In this episode, she shares honestly about what finally shifted for her, and why the answer wasn't another app or another strategy, but learning to trust herself.

We get into so much in this conversation:

• How Lauren met her husband through a Reddit post about "the oversharing phenomenon" (yes, really)
• Why effort doesn't always equal results in dating, and the frustration that comes with that
• The moment she hit rock bottom and what changed because of it
• Shifting from external advice to internal guidance - and what that actually looks like day to day
• The honest conversation about men, emotional intelligence, and whether things are actually changing
• Why Lauren takes a middle-of-the-road approach to dating apps (and when she thinks it's okay to quit them)
• What the early stages of her relationship actually felt like, and why "calm" scared her at first
• The avoidant chapter nobody talks about when you finally meet someone good
• Why the work you do in your single chapter doesn't disappear when love arrives

This is one of those conversations that will stay with you. Whether you're deep in your single chapter right now or just starting to think about getting back out there, Lauren's story is a reminder that love can happen in the most unexpected ways, and that your timeline is working for you, even when it doesn't feel like it.

Connect with Lauren:

📖 Book — Looking for Something Serious: https://www.amazon.com/Looking-Something-Serious-Stories-Lessons/dp/B0CLZ3XS9R

📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lookingforsomethingserious/

🌐 Website: https://lauren-josephine.com/

Want to work on your single chapter alongside 100+ women who get it? The Turning community is where we do exactly this together. Learn more: https://www.turning30coach.com/turning-lp

The Turning 30 Podcast is hosted by Life Coach Emma Wilson.

Starting April 6th we're kicking off a live run-through of the Next Chapter program inside the Turning community and this episode is the story of exactly where it came from.

The Next Chapter is Emma's signature coaching program: 20+ videos, a 100-page workbook, four workshops, and a community to go through it all with. It has previously been available for up to $1,000 — right now you can access it as part of your Turning membership for just $83/month, along with live coaching, guest expert sessions, daily resources and so much more.

If you've been listening to the podcast and wondering what it would look like to actually do the work, this is it.

👉 Join Turning here: https://turning.circle.so/checkout/your-turning-membership

The doors are open until midnight on April 5th.

This week's episode is a solo one, and it's a story Emma has never told in full before on the podcast.

It's about what happened after the big 2020 breakup (not the breakup itself, but what came next). And it's the story that explains exactly where the Next Chapter program was born.

It’s all about how you need to be a little more delusional and a little less realistic in order to build the life that you want.

In 2020, within the space of one week, Emma lost her relationship, her job, and her home — with zero savings and no idea what was coming. A few months later, despite being in debt and genuinely questioning everything, she said yes to a last-minute trip to a hilltop villa in Greece. Something told her she had to go.

That week changed everything.

In this episode:

• What rock bottom actually looked like (and why she was still trying to date through it)
• The journaling breakthrough that happened on a balcony overlooking the sea in Siphnos
• The bold, slightly delusional decision she made that week — and why it worked
• The link between building a life you love and finding a relationship
• Why looking for love from a low energy place keeps you stuck
• How exactly two years later, she met Ellie

This episode is for you if you're in a transitional moment right now. Maybe you're coming out of a breakup, questioning your career, thinking about solo travel, or just feeling like something needs to shift but you don't know where to start.

Sometimes the most responsible thing you can do is the thing that looks irresponsible from the outside.

https://www.turning30coach.com/turning-lp

This week I'm joined by Cole Zesiger, a breakup and relationship coach who has helped over 2,000 people navigate heartbreak.

After going through a divorce at 23 and jumping into a rebound relationship that also ended, Cole rebuilt his life from scratch and now teaches others how to do the same. He also just released his first book, Exes and No's: The Breakup Advice You Don't Want to Hear.

This is one of the rare episodes where we have a male guest, and I loved getting Cole's perspective on breakups, rebounds, and what it actually takes to be ready for love again.

What we cover:

• Why breakups are so devastating. It's not just losing the person, it's losing the entire future you imagined with them.

• The science behind heartbreak. Studies show that romantic rejection activates the same brain patterns as withdrawing from hard drugs. This explains why we do irrational things after a breakup.

• The truth about no contact. Why treating a breakup like a detox is often the fastest path to healing, and why it's also the best strategy if you genuinely want to get back together.

• Can you actually get back with an ex? Cole shares when reconciliation works, when it doesn't, and a story about a couple who reunited after divorce and are still going strong years later.

• The rebound trap. Why jumping into a new relationship too quickly often just delays the grief, and how Cole learned this the hard way.

• How to know when you're ready to date again. Not "fully healed" but "happy enough" with your life that you won't just take the first person who shows interest.

• The dating rules that keep you single. Why building a rigid checklist after heartbreak often backfires and screens out great people for meaningless reasons.

• How to talk about your ex on early dates. The difference between making your ex the main character of the story versus making yourself the main character.

Resources mentioned:

Cole's new book, Exes and No's: coachcolezesiger.com/exsandnos

Work with Cole: coachcolezesiger.com/booking

Cole on Instagram: @coachcolezesiger

Connect with Emma:

Instagram: @turning30coach

Join the Turning Community: https://www.turning30coach.com/turning-lp

If this episode helped you see breakups differently, please subscribe, rate, and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

Think you need fireworks on the first date to know they're the one? In this episode, Emma challenges everything we've been taught about how love is supposed to feel at the start.

What we cover:

The difference between a fast burn and a slow burn, and why rushing through the early stages of dating often means skipping the check-ins that actually matter.

Why those "I just knew" stories you see on Instagram aren't the full picture, and what most love stories actually look like behind the scenes.

The dating masks we all wear. Even if you think you're being your authentic self, Emma explains why it takes time for the real versions of both people to show up.

How Emma and Ellie navigated the early days of their relationship, including why a three-week trip apart actually helped them.

Practical tips for slowing down without dragging things out, from choosing better date activities to reframing how you ask important questions.

Why going slow at the start often leads to things speeding up later, and how to trust that process when you're feeling the pressure of your 30s.

Connect with Emma:

Instagram: @turning30coach

Join the Turning Community: https://www.turning30coach.com/turning-lp

If this episode shifted something for you, please subscribe, rate, and share it with a friend who's in her dating era.

Ever caught yourself saying "I'm doing everything right, so why isn't it working?" You're not alone. In this episode, Emma unpacks that phrase so many women use when they join the Turning community, and what it often reveals underneath.

What we cover:

Is there really such a thing as "doing all the right things" when it comes to love? Emma challenges the idea that love works like other areas of life where effort equals results. Unlike your career or friendships, love has an element of randomness and divine timing that we simply can't control.

The difference between wanting love and being open to it. Emma shares her own story of how she turned down Ellie two years before they got together, not because she didn't want a relationship, but because she had deep inner work to do first. Desire and openness aren't the same thing.

How to tell if you're truly ready. Emma offers a simple thought experiment: imagine someone handed you an envelope containing a real, past-the-honeymoon-phase relationship starting tomorrow. What comes up for you? Your honest reaction might reveal more than you expect.

What to actually focus on during this chapter. Instead of treating single life as a waiting room, Emma encourages you to get curious about what genuinely lights you up and to do the inner work that opens your heart to receive love when it does arrive.

Resources mentioned:

Free journaling guide: https://chipper-builder-227.kit.com/journal-guide

The Turning Community for women in their 30s calling in love

Coming soon: a workshop on how to open your heart and call in your next chapter

Connect with Emma:

Instagram: @turning30coach

Join the Turning Community: https://www.turning30coach.com/turning-lp

If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, rate, and share it with a friend who needs to hear it xo

This is a special bonus episode following the Love After 35 email series, where I’ve been sharing real stories from women who met their partners later than expected (many in their late 30s and early 40s).

After collecting dozens of submissions over the past year and interviewing women on this podcast for over six years, I've noticed clear patterns in how women find love after 35. In this episode, I'm breaking down the seven most common patterns and what you can learn from them.

The 7 Patterns:

1. The struggle before the shift - What every woman experienced before meeting their partner
2. Divine timing and serendipity - The unexplainable moments that led to love
3. Building a beautiful single chapter - What women were actually doing while single
4. The work that preceded love - What changed internally before they met their person
5. Surrender and acceptance - The mindset shift that opened them up
6. It felt different - Why the right relationship doesn't always feel how you expect
7. The advice they all give - What every woman says to her younger self

Join the Turning Community

If these stories resonate with you and you're thinking "I want that to be me," come inside the Turning Community. This is where you do the work these women did: the internal healing, the mindset shifts, the building of a beautiful single chapter.

Inside you get:

• The Turning Curriculum (two full courses on dating and building your thirties chapter)
• Live group coaching with Emma
• A 24/7 community of over 100 women from around the world
• Expert guest workshops on relevant topics
• Daily accountability challenges
• Support from women who understand exactly what you're going through

Join Now: https://www.turning30coach.com/turning-lp